An Assessment of parental level of income on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to establish the influence of parental level of income on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Kangundo Sub-county. It adopted a descriptive survey research design. It targeted all (27) public secondary schools in Kangundo Sub-county, all (27) school heads, all (27) parents’ association chairpersons, all (339) teachers and all (2,663) form three students. The study employed a census technique to include all schools; 24 in the main study and 3 in the pilot study. All the 24 school heads as well as all the 24 parents’ association chairpersons of the participating schools were included in the study. It sampled 30.0% of teachers that gave 102 teachers. Stratified random sampling technique was employed to select participating teachers where a proportionate weighted sample was identified per school using proportional allocation method. Then, simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the participating teachers in each school. Yamene (1967) formula was used to give a sample of 348 students. Stratified random sampling technique was employed to identify and select weighted random samples per school. In total, 498 respondents participated in the study. Data collection instruments included questionnaires for school heads, teachers, students and an interview guide for parents’ association chairpersons. Validity of the research instruments was ascertained through expert judgment and piloting. Reliability was achieved through test re-test method where the instruments were piloted in schools at a time interval of two weeks and the two results were correlated using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation method. Data were entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 26.0) for analysis. Further, inferential analysis was employed that involved correlational analysis at a 0.05 level of significance. The hypothesis was accepted or rejected at a 0.01 level of significance. Results establishes a moderate positive correlation between parents' level of income and students’ academic performance that was statistically significant (R=.534; p=0.011<0.05). Recommendations are put forth such as: the government to make secondary school education completely free, the to create awareness of how parents can assist their school-going children and schools to hold parents’ meetings and train them on the roles they are required to play to facilitate their children's learning.