This paper is an attempt to study the influence of the variations in school students, family background on their educational performance.
Class differences, determined mainly on the basis of socioeconomic differences, were chosen as the main factor to account for differences in educational achievement. The results show that the differences in educational achievement among students, were due to the following variables: the material environment of the family, the physical amenities of the house, patterns of power distribution, degree of participation of the members, and differences in father’s occupation, parents’ education and attitudes and child rearing-help practices.
The paper also shows that variables related to cultural, attitudinal and/or cognitive aspects of family life, play a greater role in producing variations in education achievement, than those variables related to material environment. However, the interrelations between the two aspects prove to be of importance in dealing with the problems at hand.