Influence of Socio –Economic Status of Parents on Students’ Academic Performance in KCSE in Public Day Secondary Schools in Marani Sub-County, Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the extent to which parents’ socio-economic status influence students' academic performance in public day secondary schools in Marani Sub- County Kisii County, Kenya with a view to generating policy recommendations on how to manage their effects. This study used a descriptive survey design. The unit of analysis was 29 public day secondary schools in Marani Sub- County of Kisii County, Kenya. The respondents of the study were 1,501 form four students by the time of the study, 29 principals and 301 teachers. In this study simple random sampling was used to sample schools, teachers and students while purposive sampling was used for principals. This study employed content validity and the reliability coefficient of 0.8390 was obtained and was taken as being a perfect measure of the instruments of data collection. The findings of this study indicated that the lower the parents’ socio-economic status the lower the students’ average grade and number of points in performance while the higher the parents socio-economic status the higher the academic performance of the students. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that parents’ socio-economic status influenced students' academic performance in public day secondary schools. The conclusions recommended that the Kisii County government in collaboration with Ministry of Education should sensitize parents with low level of education to attend adult classes organised by the communities for them to be explained about the reading and writing; calculating; monitoring students’ academic activities both at home and at school.