THE PARENTAL STATUS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background Study
The development of any nation or community depends largely on the quality of education of such a nation. It is generally believed that the basis for any true development must commence with the development of human resources (Akanle, 2007). Hence formal education remains the vehicle for social-economic development and social mobilization in any society. The difference between developed and developing nations is not on the basis of colour, race or any other criteria, but on the basis of education and knowledge. Even in a society itself, people are differentiated on the basis of the quality of education, received by them (Mumthas, 2006). Education therefore has an immense impact on the development human society. It is through education that knowledge and information is received and spread throughout the world. In other words “without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards outside world” (Khan, 2003). Parents play an immense and significant role in the academic performance of their children. Educated parents would have increased emphasis on educational excellence. Educated parents are equipped by virtue of their education to take cognizance of the fact that parent- student- school- community relationship is important in order to promote educational attainment and academic achievement of their children and so they make the partnership a priority (Okantey, 2008).
Parent has vital roles to play in the life of a child. The involvement of a parent on a child determines the future of such child. Parenting involvement is a catch-all term for many different activities including at ‘home,’ good parenting, helping with homework, talking to teachers, attending school functions, through to taking part in school governance. When schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in schools but throughout life. To say the fact, the most accurate prediction of a student’s performance in school is not income or social status, but the extent to which that student’s parent is able to create a home environment that encourage learning and to express high expectations for their children’s achievement and future careers.
Academic achievement is directly related to students’ growth and development of knowledge in an educational situation where teaching and learning process takes place. Academic achievement is defined as the performance of the students in the subject they study in the school (Pandey, 2008). Academic performance determines the student’s status in the class. It gives children an opportunity to develop their talents, improve their grades and prepare for the future academic challenges. Parental involvement in promoting children’s school success has been identified as a vital factor affecting students’ academic performance in school. In particular, various aspects of parental involvement although, parents of different occupation classes often have different styles of child rearing, different ways of disciplining their children and different ways of reacting to their children. These differences do not express themselves consistently as expected in the case of every family; rather they influence the average tendencies of families for different occupational classes. (Rothestein, 2004).
