Effect of parents’ attitude towards a child’s education on academic performance of boys and girls in selected mixed Public Primary Schools in Kisumu County

Abstract

The academic performance between boys and girls has been varying in Kenya and Worldwide for many reasons. This study examined the effect of parents’ attitude towards a child’s education on academic performance of boys and girls in selected mixed Public Primary Schools in Kisumu County. This study used a descriptive survey research design. Head/Deputy teachers, class teachers, subject teachers, pupils and their parents of the public primary schools in Kisumu county constituted the Target population. Stratified sampling, Simple random sampling and Purposive sampling were used. A sample size of 30 % of the target population was used. Both Primary and Secondary data were collected using Questionnaire and written documents respectively. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used in data analysis. Document analysis was also done. The results of the study showed that the correlation between parents’ attitude towards child’s education and academic performance was significantly positive (r=0.374 and p=0.027). Parents attitude towards child education explained 11% of the learners academic performance and that a unit increase in parental attitude towards child’s education leads to an improvement in academic performance by 63%. This study concludes that academic performance of the learners is significantly affected by parents’ attitude towards child’s education and recommends that Parents need to be encouraged to take positive attitude on their child’s education because it explained 11% of the learners academic performance