CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

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. The family has a responsibility to socialize children for making them productive members of society. The more the parents get involved in the process of imparting education to their children, the more the children might excel in their academic careers and become productive and responsible members of society.

It was assumed that the academic achievement of students may not only depend on the quality of schools and the teachers, rather the extent of parental involvement had a vital role to play in the academic achievement of their kids.

Children are more likely to have higher academic achievement levels and improved behavior when families are involved in their education (Bryan, 2005). Numerous studies in this area had demonstrated the importance of family interaction and involvement in the years prior to entering school (Bergsten, 1998; Hill, 2001; Wynn, 2002).

Research findings had also shown that a continued effort of parental involvement throughout the child’s education can improve academic achievement (Driessen, Smit & Sleegers, 2005; Fan, 2001; Hong & Ho, 2005).

The idea that parental involvement engenders students’ academic performance was intuitively appealing to the point that society in general, and educators in particular, had considered parental involvement an important ingredient for the remedy of many ills in education today. In the 1980s and early 1990s, studies were published that suggested the importance of parental involvement in school. In the mid-1990s, the popular press, policymakers, and school administrators actively advocated parental involvement.

The legislation was enacted, such as the Goals of 2000 which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in the United States, which has made parents’ involvement in their children’s education a national priority.

Research had consistently demonstrated that parental expectations for their children’s educational attainment strongly predict academic achievement. The parental expectation for educational attainment had positively predicted students’ achievement test scores (Benner &Mistry, 2007; Neuenschwander, Vida, Garret, &Eccles, 2007; Singh et al., 1995; Zhan, 2006), as well as Grade Point Average (GPA) (Seyfried & Chung, 2002).

This chapter comprised the introduction and incorporates the following; the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significances of the study, the definition of terms, and scope of the study.

Background of the Study

Parental educational level is an important predictor of children’s educational and behavioral outcomes (Davis, 2005). Education has been a vital aspect of human beings since it teaches people how to acquire skills, knowledge, aptitude, attitude, norms, and cultures. Education can be formal (in a school setting), informal (churches, streets, peers), and non-formal (vocational centers). Education is a holistic system that incorporates all age groups.

The change in educational trend had called for the involvement of teachers, parents, and students. The new pedagogic approach confirms that education has shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered. It can be clearly seen that parents have had a vital role to play in learner’s performance since 1970.

This involvement of parents may go a long way in contributing to the decrease or increase in students’ academic performance. The burst of the 20th century brought in a lot of developments in the world, such as Information and Computer Technologies (ICTs) and industrialization which have led to the high rate of commitment of parents to be able to pay less interest to students academic needs and performances.

The current trend in education is making formal, informal, and non-formal education to be inductive. It had obliged parents, teachers, students, and the community to work in collaboration to improve students learning abilities and capacities.

Parental involvement in a child’s early education was consistently found to be positively associated with the child’s academic performance (Hara and Burke, 1998; Hill and Craft, 2003; Marcon, 1999; Stevenson and Bakar, 1987). Specifically, children whose parents are more involved in their education have higher levels of academic performance than children whose parents are less involved.

Parents’ involvement in their children’s education can be detected through parental guidance, parental motivation, and parental educational expectations or aspirations for their children’s schooling. Based on this premise, the study explores the underlying concerns of student’s academic performance vis à vis parental involvement in section 1.3.

Statement of the Problem

Student’s academic performance has always been exposed to peer influence, teaching efforts of the teachers, and other environmental factors. However, this has somehow changed to an extent. Students’ academic performance can be influenced by a lack of parental involvement. This had to do with how parents are opened to their children, committed to children’s school demands, and the provision of children’s school needs adequately.

It should however be indicated that some students are committed to their studies and are able to do their homework satisfactorily, are regular at school and on time, and are well equipped in terms of provision of basic school needs like uniforms and the required textbooks. On the other hand, the majority of the students are less interested in schooling, are less equipped in terms of the required textbooks, hardly committed to assigned tasks, irregular either due to non-payment of fees or unruly behavior, and lack of follow-up at home.

The question which remains to be answered was how well do this second group of students perform in their studies. There was the need to underscore parental involvement in this state of affairs as regards student’s education and their academic performances. The result of the findings helped in making some invaluable recommendations.

Objectives of the Study

Generally, the main objective of this study was to find out the effects of parental involvement in students’ education and their effects on their academic performance in the Bamenda Municipality. The specific objectives of the study were as follows;

1. To examine how parental guidance affects students’ academic performance in secondary schools.
2. To understand how parental motivation affects students’ academic performance in secondary schools.
3. To examine the extent to which parental expectations and aspirations affect students’ academic performance in secondary schools.