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The Parental Status And Academic Performance In Secondary School
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The influence of parents on children school performance is well
documented in numerous studies. Gadsden (2003) says greater parental
involvement at early stage in children’s learning, positively affects
the child’s school performance including higher academic achievement.
Harderves (1998) review that family whose children are doing well in
school exhibit the following characters:
• Establish a daily
family routine by providing time and a quiet place to study with the
children and assigning responsibility for house hold chores.
•
Monitor out-of-school activities, for example setting limits on
television watching, reduce time of playing, monitor the groups of
friends the pupils walk with.
• Encourage children’s
development and progress in school; that is maintaining a worm and
supportive home, showing interest in children’s progress at school,
helping him or her with homework, discussing the value of a good
education and future career with children.
Upon this background, this
study sets out to investigate the parental status and student academic
performance in Lagos State secondary schools.
Statement of the problem
The
role of a parent to a child at any given time cannot be over
emphasized. The home is very germane and crucial to a child’s well-being
and development in later life. Izzo et al (1999) studied 1205 US
children from kindergarten through to grade 3 in a 3 year longitudinal
research programme. Teachers rated four forms of involvement; frequency
of parent-teacher contact; quality of parent teacher interaction;
participation in educational activities in the home; and participation
in school activities. These factors, as well as family background
variables were examined to find any relationship they might have with
school achievement as indexed by school grades. Consistent with other
studies, Izzo et al showed that all forms of parental involvement
declined with child’s age and that involvement in the home ‘predicted
the widest range of performance variance. In another longitudinal
study, Dubois, (1994) showed that family support and the quality of
parent child relationships significantly predicted school adjustment in a
sample of 159 young US adolescents (aged 10 –12) followed in a two
year longitudinal study. At-home parental involvement clearly and
consistently has significant effects on pupil achievement and adjustment
which far outweigh other forms of involvement. When schools work
together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not
just in school, but throughout life. The challenges of single
parenthood, family crises and the ever increasing involvement of women
in various areas of community and national development makes one
to ask questions as to whether parents are still able to be
committed to their wards; or whether they are putting enough
efforts towards effective learning and performance of their
children.
The foregoing discussion had established that socio –
economic status and host of other factors relating to home environment
of students, such as educational background of parents, health status of
students, parental occupation and family size could have effects on
children academic achievement.Given the importance of education to
development, why then it is not taken seriously as indicated by low pass
rates. What then mainly determines academic performance in the specific
case of secondary school students in Lagos State? Well, in factual
context, many ideas come to mind if we think why some students perform
better than others: is it because they study more at home? Do they have a
higher capacity to learn? Does the personal background, way of life and
environment of the student favour his/her performance?
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