Parental Motivation as a Predictor of Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils in Migori County, Kenya

Abstract

Involvement of parents in their children's academic performance is supported globally. Both the intrinsic and the extrinsic motivation play a vital role in the learners' academic excellence. While academic performance is assessed through classwork, course work and other types of assessment, excellent and poor academic performance is associated with a number of factors such as learner's cognitive abilities and parental involvement. In Kenya underperformance is associated with a number of factors for example understaffing and inadequate learning resources. In Migori County the average mean score between 2017 and 2019 in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education is 245.54 (49.11%). The purpose of the study was to examine parental motivation as a predictor of academic performance of primary school pupils in Migori County, Kenya. The objective of the study was to determine the extent to which parental motivation predicts academic performance. The study was anchored on achievement motivation theory, social learning theory and a conceptual framework showing the relationship of the variables. Explanatory sequential mixed research design was adopted. Population of the study comprised 570 teachers, 30,600 standard eight pupils, 30600 parents and one director of education. Sample size was 481 of which 60 were teachers, 380 standard eight pupils, 40 parents and one county director of education. Purposive sampling was used to select pupils and the director of education.  Stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 190 boys and 190 girls; 30 male and 30 female teachers. Cluster sampling was used to classify sub-counties. Questionnaire, interview schedules, focus group discussion and document analysis guide were employed to collect data. A pilot study was conducted among 10 teachers, 40 pupils and one director of education. Split-half method was used to determine the reliability of research instruments and their index was 0.823 for teachers and 0.786 for pupils. Content and construct validity were ascertained by the supervisors. Quantitative data was analysed using Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient and regression. The data was also presented using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages and means.  Qualitative data was reported as themes and subthemes. The results showed that parental motivation predictor variable, related linearly to academic performance response variable. This relationship was found to be statistically significant at p-value = 0.002, < 0.05. The study concluded that parental motivation based on provisions to support the pupils in their education, encouragement through praise and appreciation when pupils perform better in examinations and rewards such as material gifts improves academic performance. It was recommended that parents should visit schools to check on pupils' progress. Besides, they should attend school annual meetings.