Impact of Parental Involvement on Students Academic Performance amongst Senior Secondary School Students

Abstract

This study was designed to find out the impact of parental involvement on student’s academic performance amongst senior secondary school students in Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos State. Three specific objectives and three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A survey design was used for the study. The population of the study consisted of 50 students studying randomly selected from the study area. A structured questionnaire titled “Parental Involvements and academic performance of senior secondary schools students Questionnaire (PIAPSSSSQ) was used as instrument for data collection. Simple percentage statistical method was used to test the null hypotheses. The result revealed that parental involvements goes a long way to play a vital role in influencing and promoting the academic performance of students in Basic Technology in secondary schools. Recommendation made include; parents should endeavour to participate in school programmes such as PTA meeting, school administrator and teachers should be encourage to maintain better school-parents communication to get up-to-date with the school strength/weaknesses pertaining to school activities and government should provide the basic laboratory equipments for the school to enhance effective learning and better impact on academic performance of students, as these will help on effective teaching and learning in schools in Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos State.

 

                                              

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 

1.1       Background to the Study

Education is essential for the development of society. The more educated the people of a society are, the more civilized and well disciplined the society might be. Mainly, family has responsibility to socialize children for making them productive members of society. The more the parents involve in the process of imparting education to their children, the more the children might excel in their academic career and to become the productive and responsible members of society.

 

It has been assumed that academic achievement of students may not only depend on the quality of schools and the teachers, rather the extent of parental involvement has vital role to play in academic achievement of their kids.  The focus of this study is to examine a relationship (if any) between the extent of parental involvement in academic activities of their children and the level of their children’s academic performance in Basic Technology.

 

The transition from middle school to secondary school may be an overwhelming and stressful experience for young adolescents. Developmentally, students are entering a period in their lives when their physical, cognitive, psychological, and social characteristics are beginning to evolve. Secondary school students experience both a contextual change and a personal change during this transition. It may often a confusing time for students, their families, and the other adults in their lives who seek to support their healthy development and learning. The secondary school learning environment may be more complex than elementary school and academic achievement expectations increase. Children are more likely to have higher academic achievement levels and improved behavior when families are involved in their education (Bryan, 2005). Learning begins at home through interaction with one’s family.

 

Parental involvement in a child’s education along with environmental and economic factors may affect child development in areas such as cognition, language, and social skills. Numerous studies in this area have demonstrated the importance of family interaction and involvement in the years prior to entering school (Bergsten, 1998; Hill, 2001; Wynn, 2002). Research findings have also shown that a continued effort of parental involvement throughout the child’s education can improve academic achievement (Driessen, Smith & Sleegers, 2005; Fan, 2001; Hong & Ho, 2005). Academic failure has been linked with risk behaviors and negative outcomes such as; substance abuse, delinquency, and emotional and behavioral problems (Annunziata, Houge, Faw, & Liddle, 2006).

 

There is little research available on the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement of secondary school students. A majority of the research in this area has been conducted solely with elementary school students (Baily, Silvern, Brabham, & Ross, 2004; Marjoribanks, 2005). This study may provide an in-depth look at one aspect of parental involvement, involvement in academic activities of their children, and academic achievement of secondary school students. Beside the passing students, a significant majority secured less than 50 per cent marks. Parental involvement in school has been linked with academic achievement. Although little research has been done in the area of parental involvement and secondary school students, the literature review examines the many factors that may contribute to the level of parental involvement and academic achievement in secondary school. This work sought to identify the impact of parental involvement on academic amongst senior secondary school students in Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos State.

 

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Parents are often faced with unique challenges that hinder them from meeting the learners’ needs. They include; insufficient time, career or job type, level of education, order of priority, set home environment, opinion to voluntary work at school, time taken to respond to school activities for example buying instruction materials, attending parents meetings, conferences, sports ,academic clinic day, disciplinary  cases and also discussing the academic progress of the child. If the above needs are not attended to, there is a likelihood of the child not performing well because he or she is not adequately supported. Insufficient parental involvement may lead to poor performance of the child academically (K.N.E.C Report, 2006).

 

Parents from private primary schools have been found to be more involved than parents from public primary schools in areas such as attending academic clinic day, parents meetings, paying motivation fees, buying reading materials and buying television, radios, computer for computer games while in public primary schools this is taken as extra expenses. The parents from public schools tend to be reluctant and therefore, the preschool children are not exposed to varied earning opportunities. This affects their acquisition of learning skills such as numeracy and literacy skills as compared to children from private preschools. 

Underachievement at school or failure to reach a satisfactory level of literacy and numeracy is a national problem and it’s caused by various factors such as poor parental involvement. A difference in performance has also been noted between the public and private schools in the same area whereby public school record a lower mean grade compared to private schools. Academic performance of students in Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos State has remained very low for a very long time, the study therefore sought to establish the impact of parental involvement in the academic performance of students in the area.