Parental involvement on students’ academic performance in National examinations in Public Secondary Schools: a Case of Trans-Nzoia West Sub-County

Abstract

Parents make a greater contribution on academic performance of public secondary schools in Kenya. However, most of the public secondary schools have continued to perform poorly in examinations in the last five years. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of parental involvement on performance of students in national examinations in public secondary schools in Trans-Nzoia West Sub-County. The specific objectives of the study were: to examine the effect of parental involvement in decision making on academic performance, to determine the impact of parental provision of teaching and learning resources on academic performance, to assess the outcome of prompt parental fee payment on academic performance and to investigate the effect of parental visitation to school on performance in national examination in public secondary schools in Trans-Nzoia West. The study was based on Epstein’s integrated theory of family-school relations, which is characterized by a set of overlapping spheres of influence. The study adopted a survey design. The research was both descriptive and correlation in nature. The target population for this study was 29 principals, 290teachers, 11600 students and 11600 parents. The sample size was 9 principals, 87 teachers, 620 parents and 620 students for the two zones. Simple random sampling was used in selecting 9 schools, purposive sampling was used to select principals of the sampled schools, simple random sampling to select teachers. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select parents while stratified random sampling was used to select students based on their class level. Questionnaires, interview schedules, document analysis and observation were the methods used for data collection. Q uestionnaires were administered by a research assistant who also ensured that completed questionnaires were returned. Data gathered was analysed using statistical package for social sciences and presented in frequency tables, percentages, graphs and pie charts. The findings indicated that parents acts as activist in management of the School thus leading to good academic Performance of Students. The Study established that parental involvement in provision of the teaching and learning resources has a positive impact on students’ academic performance. The research established that Prompt payment of school fees in one instalment affects academic performance of the Student. It was also found that most of parents expected good performance from their children, but were not visiting the Schools. There were other parents who had no time to discuss with their children anything about their studies. This greatly affected the performance of the students. Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that parents’ involvements indecision making, Provision of Teaching and Learning Resources, Prompt Payment of Fees, and Visitation to Schools leads to improved academic achievement of the students. The study recommends that parents should be totally involved in decision making, provision of teaching and learning resources, visitation to schools and Prompt fees payment for improved academic performance in national examinations. If the recommendations are taken into account by the stake holders, academic performance is expected to improve