Abstract:
School readiness, the physical, emotional and cognitive preparedness of a child is a key factor for
enrolment into the primary level of education. The importance of physical, emotional and
cognitive preparedness of primary one entrants as factors for school readiness have attracted
scholarly efforts. However, available evidence has shown that the children enrolled into preprimary school find it difficult to transit to primary school due to low school readiness. Past
studies on school readiness focused more on intervention and family size and put little emphasis
on Family Demographic Factors (FDF) and pupils' Socio-emotional Skills (SeS). Thus, the study
examined FDF (Family Income -FI, Parental Educational Level -PEL, Home Location –HL) and
Socio-emotional Skills (Self-Awareness -SeA, Social Awareness-SoA, Relationship Skills-ReS)
as predictors of school readiness among primary one pupils in southeastern Nigeria.
Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System and Erikson’s Social-Emotional Human Development
theories provided the scheme, whilst survey strategy of the correlation style was utilised. Simple
random sample technique was utilised to pick three (Abia, 320; Anambra’ 416 and Imo, 418)
states in southeastern Nigeria. The disproportionate sampling technique was utilised to select four
Local Government Areas (LGAs) from each of the selected states making 12 LGAs. Five public
primary schools that have been existing for not less than twenty years were purposely selected
through the use of purposive sampling from each LGA. Simple random sampling technique was
utilised to select one intact class from each school, all having 1200 pupils. Research instruments
used were Family Demographic Factors Questionnaire, Pupil’s School Readiness (r=0.94),
Pupil’s Socio-emotional Skills (r=0.92) rating scales, Teacher and Research Assistants Training
Guides. Analysis of data was conducted with the aid of descriptive statistics, PPMC-PearsonProduct-Moment-Correlation, and linearregression (multiple) at 0.05 significance level.
Majority of the pupils (53.0%) were six years old and 53.0% were female. The monthly FI of
majority of respondents (65.0%) was between N10,000-N50,000, while HL of 53.0% was urban
and 75.0% did not have more than secondary education. Pupils’ school readiness level was high
with (65.9%) and socio-emotional skills (65.0%). Positive and significant relationships existed
among PEL (r = 0.13), FI (r = 0.11), HL (r = 0.13) and pupils’ school readiness. FDF had a
significant composite contribution on pupils’ school readiness (F(3;1195) = 24.65) and accounted
for 5.6% of its variance. The PEL (β = 0.18; t = 6.27), HL (β = 0.16; t = 5.68) and FI (β = 0.13; t
= 4.50) had significant relative contributions to school readiness. Socio-emotional skills had
significant composite contribution on pupils’ school readiness (F(3;1195) = 47.83) and accounted
for 10.5% of its variance. Self-awareness (β = 0.21; t = 6.48) and relationship skills (β = 0.16; t =
4.88) had significant relative contributions to school readiness.
Family income, parental educational level, home location and self-awareness, social awareness
and relationship skills influenced pupils’ school readiness in southeastern Nigeria. Primary one
pupil’s teachers should consider the family background in handling issues around readiness.
