Effects Of Level Of Literacy Of Parents And Pupils Academic Performance
[A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE]

According to Davis-Kean (2005) the literature on achievement consistently has shown that parent education is important in predicting children’s achievement (Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, & Duncan, 1994; Haveman & Wolfe, 1995; Smith, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 1997). The mechanisms for understanding this influence, however, have not been well studied. In general, family process models (Linver, Brooks-Gunn, & Kohen, 2002;Yeung, Linver, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002) have examined how parenting behaviours, such as the structure of the home environment, influence children’s achievement outcomes. Others have focused on specific behaviors such as harsh parenting, nurturing, and warmth (Conger et al., 2002; Mis-try, Vanderwater, Houston, &McLoyd  (2002).
Parents’ Literacy Levels in Relation to Learner Performance
Roman (2004) cited in Ozurumba, et al (2007) states that children whose parents did not complete school or have trouble with literacy skills are more likely to be illiterate themselves, and are more than five times as likely to drop out of high school as other children. Illiteracy also poses a considerable burden on the family or support system of the individual in question, as illiterate adults are highly dependent on others to function and survive (for example, not being able to read letters, not being able to fill the forms at the banks). Illiterate parents may not have the knowledge and skills needed to act and to respond to challenges they encounter in their daily lives (like reading letters from their children’s schools, assisting their children with school work). This indicates that being literate in today’s society demands a variety of functional abilities, which, when absent, can have dramatic health, economic, political and social consequences. Most illiterate parents feel that they cannot possibly help their children and feel embarrassed to participate and willingly contribute to their children’s education, yet they can. Singh (2004) found that even if some parents do not understand what their children learn at school; if they spend some quality time with their children each day tend to be good motivators to their children. Therefore, parents can play a valuable role in their children’s education even if they are not educated, by showing interest, listening and encouraging their children when doing school work. According to Eggen and Kauchak (2007), when learners are motivated, they have more positive attitudes towards school and describe school as satisfying. Rural education settings pose challenges for educators who seek to make a difference in the lives of the learners and their families in rural areas; such as learners losing interest and ultimately dropping out of school. Calitz et al. (2002) contend that parents, especially in the rural areas, may not have required time and skills to assist their children. Parents working far from home might not have time to assist their children with school work; other parents may find it difficult to assist their children due to the fact that they are illiterate. However, if parents are motivated, their motivation may still help their children to be better people. Jacobs, Vakalisa and Gawe (2006) highlight the fact that each community, even the poor rural ones, has a number of people who have special talents and knowledge that is not available in books that can be shared with the learners in the classroom. Even the illiterate people still have knowledge, skills, morals and values that they can offer to their children. Therefore parents, even the illiterate ones, can be involved in their children’s education.