| dc.description.abstract | ABSTRACT
Parental involvement in children's education from an early age has a significant effect on educational achievement and continues to do so in adolescence and adulthood (Siraj¬Blatchford & Taggart, 2004). This study was set to investigate the effects of parents' involvement in their children's academic achievement in twenty one public secondary schools in Kieni West District in Nyeri County-Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: (i) Investigate the nature of parents' involvement in their children's academic achievement; (ii) Establish to what extent factors influencing parental involvement contribute to their children's academic achievement; (iii)Investigate teachers' views about parents' involvement in the learners' academic achievement; (iv) Explore the learners' views about parents' involvement in their academic achievement. The literature reviewed indicates that parents are concerned with the education of their children and that parents and teachers talk together about problems concerning students. This study used a descriptive survey design because it was a onetime study seeking the opinion of parents, teachers and students. Mugenda and Mugenda, (2003) support the use of descriptive survey because it gives the researcher a chance to create rapport with the respondents as the researcher gets to the bottom of the study. Twelve public secondary schools were randomly selected. The population of the study was five thousand three hundred and eighty one students. In total, 130 form three students, 76 teachers and 113 parents participated in this study. The research study employed both qualitative and quantitative techniques in collecting and analyzing data. The study purposively sampled form three students. The study used two sets of instruments namely: questionnaire for teachers and students and a structured interview schedule for parents. These instruments were piloted for reliability and validity. Once piloted, the instruments were administered and data collected was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The findings of the study were presented using statistical and graphical techniques. The results of the findings were that, students strongly agreed (89%) that their parents attend all school programmed meetings while 70.8% of their parents check homework. The study showed that 76% of the students strongly agreed that their parents had high hopes in them. The findings of the study indicated that 84.7% of the parents interviewed participated in school events and activities while 71.6% monitored homework. Parents' responses indicated that 92% believed that their involvement is beneficial to the teachers in aiding in their children's education progress. In addition 98.2% felt that organized parental involvement programmes can improve their relationship with their children. The findings further indicated that lack of school fees; poor education background of the parents and lack of adequate time to assist their children affected their level of involvement. Major recommendations included among others identifying the type of parental involvement in place, parent's awareness programmes through seminars and workshops and holding teacher parents conferences. Areas of further research were identified. | en_US |
