Factors influencing parent involvement in the education of their children at primary school level in Bahananwa Circuit in Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Parental involvement is a significant element that can have an impact or enhancement in the child’s education. Parental involvement implicates the active and significant involvement of the parent in all aspects, where a parent is interacting with the child for guidance and support. However, research in Okeke (2014:1) shows that poor parental involvement is the biggest challenge facing public schools in South Africa, especially schools situated in rural areas. This study aims at investigating factors that affect parental involvement in education of their children at primary school level, in Bahananwa circuit, Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province. In this study, the researcher employed mixed research approach and used purposive sampling to identify respondents who have adequate of parental involvement at schools. Accordingly, the researcher targeted all 28 School Governing Body (SGB) members which includes 3 principals, 15 parents and 10 educators in selected three primary schools within the circuit of Bahananwa. The researcher personally delivered the semi-structured questionnaires to the SGB members from the sampled schools and collected them after completion. Additionally, the researcher used observation sheet to collect more information on parental involvement. According to the findings, the primary schools are doing more through consultative meetings, among others, to ensure that parents are involved in the education of their children, both at school and at home. The schools use meetings as a major tool for parental involvement practice, but participation in the meetings was passive. The schools involve parents mostly on governance and administrative matters meaning that there is less parental involvement in curricular and extra-curricular activities. Another key finding in the study is that schools are performing inadequately with regard to learners’ performance. It is also found that the major challenges affecting parental involvement in the schools among others include parents who do not have time due to their working schedules and some due to illiteracy. The findings show that meeting areas are inconvenient for parental consultative meetings. While majority of parents have supportive attitude towards their children education, the significant proportion of parents still do not have supportive attitude. It is recommended that parental involvement in the decision making process needs to be enhanced through contact sessions to improve learners’ performance. It is also suggested that parental involvement needs to be improved in extracurricular and voluntary activities. It is further recommended that parents’ engagement at home needs to be enhanced to enhance learners’ performance.