Exploring parental influence on the academic performance of learners in the intermediate phase in Zululand district
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Date
2023
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Abstract
Parental care plays a key role in every sphere of the child’s life, and more so when the child becomes a learner. However, it is not obvious that parents view their support to their children throughout their academic life to be of critical importance as they may assume that it is the school’s responsibility, especially educators. The challenge of lack of parental support is common throughout South Africa especially in the rural areas where literacy levels are relatively lower than in urban settings. Zululand district has for many years experienced poor learner performance, which could be attributed to the lack of parental involvement in learners’ academic affairs. The purpose of the current study was to explore the influence of parental involvement in the academic performance of learners, with specific reference to those in the intermediate phase in Zululand district. The study adopted a mixed method approach using a survey and in-depth interviews. An interview guide and a questionnaire were used to gather data from two samples of four (n=4) participants and 250 respondents for the qualitative and quantitative componets, respectively. The study findings revealed that despite educators providing homework to learners, parental availability to support the learner to do their homework was very minimal. The study also revealed that despite parental support by providing study rules and study rooms as well as providing some form of control on times to watch television, parents denied the responsibility for the poor performance of their children yet they did not even visit their children’s schools to understand what prevails there. It was also interesting to note that literacy on the part of parents helped to enhance the parents’ desire to support their children towards improving their academic performance. Drawing from these findings, the researcher recommended the need for regular school meetings, preferably two parents’ meetings per term to promote parent –school involvement and collaboration. The researcher also recommended the provision of evening classes for parents to improve their literacy levels so that they can support their children when they do school work. Despite revealing such findings and making critical recommendations, this study’s findings cannot be generalised to all communities, hence the need to conduct a similar study in some other rural districts such as uMkhanyakude district and King Cetshwayo within the KwaZulu-Natal province to obtain a balanced view of parental involvement in children’s school work. The recommendation may help to mitigate the problem of declining pass rates in schools across the province and the nation at large.
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For the Master’s degree In the field of Educational Psychology and Special Education Faculty of Education