Parental socio-economic status and academic performance of junior high school students in the Ekumfi District

Abstract

The study sought to provide empirical evidence on students’ academic performance from the perspective of parental socio-economic status in order to provide insight to address the complex and pervasive problem of poor academic performance of school children. The purpose of this study was to determine how parental socio-economic status influences students’ academic performance in Junior High Schools in the Ekumfi District in the Central Region. The study adopted the convergent parallel design based on the mixed-methods approach (which is qualitative biased). Through the use of purposive and stratified random sampling techniques, 140 participants made of students, teachers and parents were selected as samples for the study. The researcher used questionnaire, interview schedule and documents as instruments for data collection. The findings revealed that most parents in the Ekumfi District had larger families, low educational background and low income, which affected the educational performance of students. The study concludes that the lower the level of education and income of parents; the lower the academic performance of children in basic schools. The study also concludes that, the larger the family size, the lower the academic performance of children in basic schools. Based on these, the study recommends, among other things, that, in order to increase children’s performance in basic schools, it is critical that policymakers and stakeholders fortify adult education as a pre-requisite for high academic performance of basic school children. The study also recommends that, it is critical for every parent to be in serious contact with teachers regarding their children's academic challenges.