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Effect of Parental Involvement on the Academic Performance of

Public Secondary School Students in Maiduguri, Borno State,
Nigeria
Mala Kulloma (PhD) and Muhammad Alkali Kolo (PhD)
Department of Education, Borno State University, P.M.B 1122 Njimtilo, Kano Road, Maiduguri. Borno State.

Corresponding author: malakulloma2016@[Link]

Abstract
The study examined the effect of parental involvement on the academic performance of public
secondary school students in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno state, Nigeria. The objectives of the
study were to determine the influence of parental involvement on student's academic
performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno State, to
investigate whether parental involvement can improve students’ self-efficacy in public senior
secondary schools in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno State, to examine the link between the socio-
economic status of the parents and students' academic performance in public senior secondary
schools in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno State, to determine whether parent-teacher relationship
influences students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri
metropolis, Borno State. Four null-hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study
employed correlational research design and the population of the study were 19,600 from public
senior secondary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis. Out of this population, 363 were used as a
sample of the study. The instrument used for the was a self-developed questionnaire entitled
“Effect of parental involvement on academic performance of senior public secondary school
students in Maiduguri Metropolis”. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistic
and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The result findings show that, there is a
strong positive relationship between parental involvement and student's academic performance,
students' self-efficacy, the socio-economic status of parents such as educational attainment,
gender, and occupation has a significant effect on students' academic performance and the
relationship between the parent-teacher relationship and students' academic performance is
statistically significant. Base on the findings, the recommendations were made.
Keywords: Parental Involvement, Students, Academic Performance, Public Secondary Schools.

Introduction
The effect of parental involvement in child education have been widely studied with a large
body of research indicating that parental involvement has a positive impact on child
academic achievement. Parental involvement is among the most crucial aspects of social
support for students’ school engagement and achievement. Yang, Chen, Wang, Li, Zhang,
and Huang, (2023)
Parental involvement has always been an essential component of every teacher-student
school academic endeavor. Parents, who have been considered as the stakeholders of the
school community, play tremendous roles in the child's educational and environmental

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transformation; thus, the intensity or extent of participation that parents have in their
child's education and school, more often, has to be realized. Many parents, whose children
are currently enrolled in a particular school, are enormously concerned, more often being
active in assisting in their child's classroom, communicating constantly with their child's
teachers, assisting with their homework, getting involved with school projects, and
discussing their child's academic strengths and weaknesses with teachers. Regrettably,
there are also some, if not many, parents who are quite passive in their child's education.
Some of them are not directly involved. Sadly speaking, some parents have obvious
manifestations of their "I-don't-care" attitude. Neither are they visible on the school
premises and get involved in the desired goals of the school where their children are getting
what they need most for life.
Why do parents have to get involved in their child's education? Parents' involvement in their
child's learning process offers many opportunities for success. According to the Centre for
Child Well-Being (2010), parental involvement in their children's learning improves a child's
morale, attitude, and academic achievement across all subject areas and promotes better
behavior and social adjustment. It further says that family involvement in education helps
children to grow up to be productive, responsible members of society. This means that if
we involve the parents in educating their children, it is tantamount to saying that the school
is proactive in implementing changes or development among the students. As parent's
involvement is increased, teachers and school administrators also raise the chance to
realize quality reform in education. Studies on parental involvement in education
conducted by Garcia and Thornton (2014) in Ntekane (2018) show that family involvement
in learning helps improve student performance, reduce absenteeism, and restore parents'
confidence in their children's education. Learners with parents or caregivers who are
involved in learners' education, earn higher grades and test scores, have better social skills,
and show improved behavior. This is something that we as a community and the world at
large need, as it would highly contribute to reducing crime and poverty. Ideally, it would
help to have a greater percentage of parental involvement in their children's education.
There are various ways through which Parents can be involved in their children's learning
through becoming part of school boards, being concerned about their children’s academic
performance, showing dedication to their children’s learning by availing themselves during
parent meetings, gaining a better understanding of the performance of their children.
Ntekane (2018).
According to Gamage, Sumanasekera, Abu Hamid, Khatibi and Azam (2021) Parental
involvement is generally the involvement of parents in the children's education process to
improve their academic as well as social well-being. These include various activities such as
supporting and monitoring homework at home, attending school activities and attending
parent and teacher interaction sessions, communicating with teachers, volunteering
activities at school, and working with the community. For every child, the school is often
called the second home, which helps mold a child to become a global citizen. The children
are taught moral values and standards through interactions at school, also aiming at

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developing the knowledge and skills required for the labor market in the future. Findings of
research done on the influence of parental involvement in the academic performance of the
children show that there is a significant relationship between parental involvement and the
student performance of the children. Active involvement of parents appears to have a
greater impact on students' performance.
According to Henderson and Berla, (1994) and Sapungan, & Sapungan, (2014), the research
reviewed and analyzed eighty-five studies that documented the comprehensive benefits of
parent involvement in children's education. This and other studies show that parent
involvement in activities that are effectively planned and well implemented result in
substantial benefits to children, parents, educators, and the school.

Benefits for the Children

i. Children tend to achieve more, regardless of ethnic or racial background,
socioeconomic status, or parents' education level.
ii. Children generally achieve better grades, test scores, and attendance.
iii. Children consistently complete their homework.
iv. Children have better self-esteem, are more self-disciplined, and show higher
aspirations and motivation toward school.
v. Children's positive attitude about school often results in improved behavior in school
and less suspension for disciplinary reasons.
vi. Fewer children are being placed in special education and remedial classes.
vii. Children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to do better when parents and
professionals work together to bridge the gap between the culture at home and the
culture in school.
viii. Junior high and high school students whose parents remain involved usually make
better transitions and are less likely to drop out of school.

Benefits for the Parents

i. Parents increase their interaction and discussion with their children and are more
responsive and sensitive to their children's social, emotional, and intellectual
developmental needs.
ii. Parents are more confident in their parenting and decision-making skills.
iii. As parents gain more knowledge of child development, there is more use of affection
and positive reinforcement and less punishment for their children.
iv. Parents have a better understanding of the teacher's job and school curriculum.
v. When parents are aware of what their children are learning, they are more likely to
help when they are requested by teachers to become more involved in their children's
learning activities at home.
vi. When parents' perceptions of the school are improved, there are stronger ties and
commitment to the school.

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vii. Parents are more aware of, and become more active regarding policies that affect
their children's education when parents are requested by the school to be part of the
decision-making team.

Benefits for the Educators

i. When schools have a high percentage of involved parents in and out of schools,
teachers and principals are more likely to experience higher morale.
ii. Teachers and principals often earn greater respect for their profession from their
parents.
iii. Consistent parent involvement leads to improved communication and relations
between parents, teachers, and administrators.
iv. Teachers and principals acquire a better understanding of families' cultures and
diversity, and they form deeper respect for parents' abilities and time.
v. Teachers and principals report an increase in job satisfaction.

Benefits for the School

i. Schools that actively involve parents and the community tend to establish better
reputations in the community.
ii. Schools also experience better community support.
iii. School programs that encourage and involve parents usually do better and have
higher quality programs than programs that do not involve parents.
A large of research has examined the effects of parental involvement in child education.
This research has found that parental involvement is positively associated with several child
outcomes, including academic achievement, social development, and emotional well-
being.
Aromolaran, et al. (2013) in their empirical survey study conducted to determine the socio-
economic factors influencing students’ academic performance in Yaba College of
Technology, collected six hundred (600) students across the different departments using a
28-item structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered using the quota
sampling method, a non-probability sampling technique. The students’ academic
performance was measured using variable GPA/CGPA categorized into two - poor
(GPA/CGPA between 0 and 2.49) and - good (GPA/CGPA between 2.50 and 4.00). Four
factors; mothers’ education level, living togetherness of parents, student class, and weekly
income/allowance; were found to influence students’ academic performance.
Chandra and Shaikh (2013) examined the relationship between socioeconomic status and
academic achievement of 14 secondary school students in Lucknow city of Uttar Pradesh,
India. The sample of the study comprised 614 students (358 males and 256 females) from
classes IX and X. The results of the study revealed the difference between high, average,
and low SES groups and their academic achievement. A positive correlation was observed
between socioeconomic status and academic achievement.

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Safdar, et al. (2013) investigated the relationship between parent’s socioeconomic status
and children's academic performance. The study was descriptive and correlational in
nature. Seven hundred and twenty (720) students were sampled from the selected districts.
A positive significant relationship between total family and income, and father’s job grade
was found with the academic performance of the students. The results of this study, thus,
showed that parents’ socio-economic status is an important variable that influences the
children’s academic performance.

Statement of the Problem

Despite the effort made by the government to provide Quality education to its citizens,
there is a drastic reduction in the academic performance of students every year. This could
be attributed factors in terms of school-related factors, teachers-related factors, home-
related factors, or parents’ participation in the education of their children. The government
is now shifting the responsibility of the management of the schools to communities through
school based management committee (SBMC) and other community-based structures to
ensure that the quality of education has improved, but still, there are low academic
performances recorded every year when senior school completion examinations results are
released.
Against this background, this research seeks to examine the effect of parental involvement
on the academic performance of public secondary school students in Maiduguri metropolis,
Borno state. Nigeria.
The objectives of the study are to:
i. Determine the influence of parental involvement on student's academic performance
in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno State.
ii. Investigate whether parental involvement can improve students’ self-efficacy in
public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno State.
iii. To examine the link between the socio-economic status of the parents and students'
academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri metropolis,
Borno State.
iv. To determine whether parent-teacher relationship influences students’ academic
performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno
State.

Hypotheses of the Study

H01: There is no significant relationship between parental involvement and students’
academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno
State.
H02: Investigate whether parental involvement can improve students’ self-efficacy in public
senior secondary schools in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno State.

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H03: There is no significant relationship between parental socio-economic status and

students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri
metropolis, Borno State.
H04: There is no significant relationship between parent-teacher relationship and students’
academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno
State

Materials and Methods

This study adopted a correlational research design to examine the effect of parental
involvement in child education. This study adopted a correlational research design.
Correlation is a non-experimental type of research design that is used to determine
relationships without the manipulation of variables. According to Creswell (2012),
correlational research design provides an opportunity for the researcher to predict scores
and explain the relationships among variables. The target population of the study is 19,600.
Out of these, 363 were taken as a sample. A technique that was used in selecting the sample
of the study was a simple random technique.
The instrument used for the study was a self-developed questionnaire entitled "The effects
of parental involvement in child education on students' academic performance". The
instrument consists of demographic information, parental involvement variables, and
students' academic performance. The instrument was validated by experts in the field of
Test and Measurement in the faculty of education. After the validation, the instrument was
tested to ascertain its reliability using the test-retest method. The Cronbach alpha level
stood at 0.82. The index shows that the instruments used were reliable for this study. The
instruments were administered with the support of a trained research assistant after
seeking permission from the appropriate authority. A total number of 363 questionnaires
were successfully retrieved from the respondents. Data were analyzed using chat,
percentage, and Pearson's Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) to determine the
relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

Results and Discussions

Gender
The pie chart in Figure 1 gives the distribution of the respondents by gender. It can be seen
that 158 respondents representing 43.5% of the students are female while 205 respondents
representing 56% are male students. Therefore, the majority of the respondents are male.

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Female

MALE

MALE FEMALE

Figure 1: Distribution of the respondents by gender

16-18,
190(52.3%)

Below 16,
128(35.3%)

17 abd above,
45(12.4%)

Figure 2: Distribution of the respondents by age group

The bar chart in Figure 2 gives the distribution of the respondents by age group. It revealed
that 128 respondents representing 35.3% of the students involved in this study were below
16 years of age, 190 students representing 52.3% of the students were between the age
bracket 16-18 years of age while 45 respondents representing 12.4% of the students are 17
years and above. Therefore, the majority of the respondents are between 16-18 years.

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SSCE,
96(26.4%)
Bsc or equivalent,
Diploama/NCE, 86(23.7%)
81(22.3%)

Primary,
52(14.3%)

Non formal,
Postgraduate,
25(6.90%)
23(6.3%)

Figure 3: Parents Educational Attainment

Figure 3: gives the educational attainment of the parents. Results revealed that, 25(6.90%)
of the parents have no formal education, 52(14.3%) have primary school leaving certificate,
96(26.4%) had SSCE, 81(22.3%) are Diploma/NCE holders, 86(23.7%) are [Link]. holders or
its equivalent while 23(6.3%) have attainment postgraduate level.

Farmer

Civl Servant
145(40%)
Trader

Artisan

Figure 4: Distribution of the respondents by occupation

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Pie-chart in Figure 4 shows that 145 representing 40% of the parents are civil servants, 21
respondents representing 6% are farmers, 57 respondents representing 16% are traders and
140 respondents representing 38% are artisans.

Hypothesis One: There is no significant relationship between parental involvement and

students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri
Metropolis, Borno State.

Table 1: Pearson Product Moment Correlation on the Relationship between Parental

Involvement and Student's academic Performance in Public Senior Secondary Schools in
Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno State
Variable N Mean SD r p-value Remark
Parental Involvement 363 65.60 12.81
0.896 0.00 Reject H01
Academic 363 64.69 13.92
Performance

Results from Table 1 revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between parental
involvement and students' academic performance in senior secondary schools with Pearson
Product Moment Correlation Coefficient 𝑟 = 0.896. The result further revealed that the
relationship between parental involvement and students' academic performance is
statistically significant because the p-value (0.00) is less than the level of significance (0.05).
Therefore, hypothesis one is rejected.

Table 2: Pearson Product Moment Correlation on the relationship between parental

involvement and students’ self-efficacy in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri
Metropolis, Borno State
Variable N Mean SD r p-value Remark
Parental 363 65.60 12.81
Involvement
0.725 0.00 Reject H02
Students Self- 363 66.44 13.17
Efficacy

Results from Table 2 revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between parental
involvement and students' self-efficacy in senior secondary schools with Pearson Product
Moment Correlation Coefficient 𝑟 = 0.725 . The result further revealed that the
relationship between parental involvement and students' self-efficacy is statistically
significant because the p-value (0.00) is less than the level of significance (0.05). Therefore,
hypothesis two is rejected.

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Hypothesis Three: There is no significant relationship between parent socioeconomic

status and students' academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri
metropolis, Borno State.

Table 3: Multiple regression analysis on the relationship between parent socio-economic

status and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri
metropolis, Borno State
Sources of Sum of df Mean Square F Remark
Variation Squares
Regression 4486.0710 3 1495.357 9.780 Reject H03
Residual 54888.805 359 152.8940
Total 59374.876 362

Results from Table 3 revealed that the socio-economic status of parents such as educational
attainment, gender, and occupation has a significant effect on students' academic
performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno State
because the p-value (0.00) is less than the level of significant (0.05). Therefore, hypothesis
three is rejected.

Table 4: Regression Coefficient

Variable Unstandardized Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 64.597 3.522 18.342 0.000
Involvement 5.260 1.319 0.204 3.987 0.000
Qualification 0.325 0.458 0.036 0.710 0.004
Occupation -2.455 0.748 -0.169 -3.284 0.001

Table 4 gives the regression coefficients and their respective p-values. It can be seen that
all the regression coefficients have a p-value less than 0.05 which indicates that, parents'
involvement, qualification, and occupation are significant predictors of students' academic
performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno State. The
r-square value of 0.874 shows that, the model as fitted explained 87.4% of the variability of
the academic performance. In other words, parental involvement, qualification, and
occupation accounted for 87.4% of the student's academic performance.

Hypothesis Four: There is no significant relationship between parent-teacher relationship

and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in Maiduguri
metropolis, Borno State

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Table 5: Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient on the Relationship between

parent-teacher relationship and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary
schools in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno State
Variable N Mean SD r p- Remark
value
Parental-Teacher 363 65.07 9.81
Relationship
0.829 0.00 Reject H04
Students’ Academic 363 66.44 13.17
Performance

Results from Table 5 revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between parent-
teacher relationship and students' academic performance in public senior secondary
schools with Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient 𝑟 = 0.829 . The result
further revealed that the relationship between the parent-teacher relationship and
students' academic performance is statistically significant because the p-value (0.00) is less
than the level of significance (0.05). Therefore, hypothesis four is rejected.

Conclusion
In conclusion, parent involvement is positively associated with several child outcomes
including academic achievement, social development, and emotional well-being. The
effects of parental involvement are mediated by several factors including the child's age,
gender, and socio-economic status. It focused on a large number of urban schools within
Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno state. Nigeria.
Even though parental involvement affects children's education; provided that the parents,
teachers, school-based committees, and other community-based structures are greatly
involved in the education of the children, can provide all the necessary needs of the children
in terms of academic performance improvement, self-efficacy, and wellbeing.

Recommendations
The following recommendations were made by the researchers based on the findings of the
study.
1. Parents and caregivers should be actively involved in the education of their children
both at home and in school so that a solid foundation would be built for the child's
academic career.
2. There should be a very cordial relationship between the parents/caregivers, teachers,
educators, and the community at large to become partners in progress in the
education of the child.
3. There should be a very strong school-based management committee (SBMC) and
Parent Teachers Association (P.T.A) formation in every school to effectively manage
the issues that may arise in the school.

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