Ensuring quality education is one of the six Education Goals agreed upon by over 160 governments during the Worlds Academic Forum, In Dakar 2000. Government seeks to offer students with education that equips knowledge, skills to enable students to participate in social, Political and Economic development. Education has therefore become a major concern in the 21^st century in every Continent in the World. The provision of Education has been the responsibility of the government Worldwide. However, for a country to attain equitable and high-quality standards, the   stake holders   need to works together.

Globally, the number of professional parents is increasing. This has led to the caretakers and teachers assuming most of the parental roles. The child-parent contact is declining hence the close attachment to Child's progress in school from the kindergartens to High institutions of learning is left to teachers. In American education, it advocates that parent involvement can make a difference in child’s education. This is in accordance to the public Agenda (2003) where 2/3 of the teachers surveyed believed that students would perform better if their parents were more involved in their children education. In addition, 72% of the parents says children of uninvolved parents    sometimes    fall    through    the cracks   in school.

In Africa, the level of education has been low: below the international standards. The effort by the government to eradicate illiteracy level still remains a concern in most of the African countries. Statistics shows that 48% of the children in African Countries do not finish primary school irrespective of the various measures by the government and donors in supporting the education sector. In some countries such as South Africa the Per Capital Education Expenditure is high, yet students perform poorly. A study by Justin Wainfleet shows that of nearly 128 million school aged children, 17 million never attend school.

Provision of education in Africa is becoming hard due to poverty with most of the population living below poverty line. Grifits reports that socially economically disadvantaged parents usually lack skills, abilities interests to help students’ education. The researcher hoped to discuss, analyze, and recommend how parents irrespective of their social economic status contribute towards students’ academic performance.

The parent financial support is essential to complement government effort in enhancing academic achievement among the students. Parents especially from rural areas and the slums have financial constrains that becomes a major challenge in funding their children education. It is a challenge in provision of the tutorial fee or in providing for the welfare of the teachers either through remunerations or other forms of motivations. More so, children with other basic essentials such as proper uniform, pens, and books become a challenge

The parents face a lot of constrains as they try to participate in their children academic performance. These constrain range from social to economic factors. The schools at times do not create an environment conducive for parent participation. The level of illiteracy too among parents may make the parents feel challenged and hence may be unable to take various roles in the school such as motivation.

Discipline is important for children development. The family as a socialization agent plays an important role in shaping the discipline and behavior of a child. Discipline leads to good attitude and also respects by student which lead to good interaction between student and the teachers and hence good academic performance. Most rural parents lack knowledge on education affairs. The role of parents in discipline and other duties is required to get satisfactory results.

Studies have shown that there is a positive correction between parent participation and student academic performance. A recent Meta-analysis showed that parent involvement in school life was more strongly associated with high academic performance.

In Kenya, good performance in National Examination is key to assured access to institutions of higher learning and eventually securing successful employment. The persistent failures in national examinations observed in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County. is worrying to teachers, parents and other stake holders in education sector irrespective of the government funding through the CDF funds. The poor performance has led to students being transferred to other schools outside the Sub County. In addition, high drop outs rates have been recorded in the Sub County. 

Statement of the Problem

The level of education standards in Kenya remains low or not satisfying when evaluated through the students’ academic performance and the government millennium goals for achieving vision 2030. In Imenti South Sub County, the past five years’ the mean score in the KCSE results has been constant at a mean score of C- minus. The score ranged from 5:2805 in 2010 and 5.7906 in 2014.This trend indicates that few students attained good grades to pursue competitive courses in various institutions of higher learning in Kenya. Various research and recommendations on how to improve the academic performance in schools shows that forming the parent teachers association (PTA) to facilitate linkage between parents and teachers has proved unfruitful. Schools have incorporated the clinic and academic days as strategies to enhanced academic performance. The parent’s role as major stakeholders of the education sector is important when evaluating the students’ academic performance. There were limited studies that have been carried out regarding parental engagement in secondary school and the specific synergy it provides to transform the academic performance in secondary schools at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Level. This study was intended to bridge this gap by establishing the strategies that could be put in place to enhance a systematic relationship between parents and schools to improve the academic performance of students in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County.

Literature Review

Parental involvements to schools have become a major education issue. For the last two decades, the social scientists have sought question on the influence of parent involvement on education outcome of secondary school children. This is an era of increasing concern about the quality of education in every country. States are taking greater role in monitoring and maintaining academic standards. Communities or societies are more watchful on expense of public education. As the parents want assurance that their children will receive adequate preparation to lead rewarding quality lives, so are the secondary schools concerned about providing quality education.

The secondary schools have been broadly categorized as government-aided or private-aided /sponsored whose goals are to produce quality education that meets the international standards. The stake holders play various roles to attain the goals and the objectives of the school. The family is the first socialization agent hence the role and participation of parent cannot be assumed while evaluating the student academic performance. Catasambis acknowledge better performance when parents gets involved in children performance in class work as they progress through school. Some educators have increasingly identified parental involvement as primary vehicles by which to   raise academic   achievement from current level.

The parents can be involved can participate in various ways so as to enhance better academic performance, such as: Financial mobilization, instilling discipline to their children, Monitoring performance at school, decision making through committee, Communication among others [1].It is good for schools to establish a good positive relationship with their parents through working in a partnership since when school work together with families to support learning ,children tend to succeed not just in school but throughout life [2].

Various studies have shown that active parental involvement in the children’s education declines the older the children become, hence a significance difference between parents in secondary school and primary school. The students in secondary schools lie in the teenage years and hence are onto robberies behavior hence need for teachers and parents to work to enhance good morals.

Parental ownership may be different from culture to culture and society to society. Parental ownership may have different types, which might have differential influence on academic performance of their children. Parental expectations have a greater impact on student’s educational outcomes. Parental ownership may include activities like helping children in reading, encouraging them to do their homework independently, monitoring their activities inside the house and outside the four walls of their house, and providing coaching services for improving their learning in different subjects.

The role of Parental ownership in children’s education has become a central issue in educational policy and research. Research findings support the existence of a positive relationship between Parental ownership and educational success, especially in the secondary school years. However, current knowledge regarding the nature and magnitude of the effects of Parental ownership in secondary education is inconsistent and limited in scope. Most of the existing research has investigated Parental ownership in the primary and middle grades. Less is known about successful Parental ownership in secondary school. The current project seeks to expand knowledge of the different parental practices in secondary education, as well as their effects on the academic success of secondary school students.

Parents play a crucial role in both the home and school environments. In general, Parental ownership is associated with children’s higher achievements in language and mathematics, enrolment in more challenging programs, greater academic persistence, better behavior, better social skills and adaptation to school, better attendance and lower drop-out rates.

There are many reasons for developing school, family and community partnerships. They can improve school programs and school climate, provide family services and support and increase parent’s skills and leadership, and connect families with others in the school and in the community and help teachers with their work. However, the main reason to create such partnerships is to help youngsters succeed in school and in later life.

Parental ownership categorized into four broad strands; Parental ownership in children’s school-based activities, Parental ownership in children’s at home-based activities, direct Parental ownership in academic activities of children and Indirect Parental ownership in academic activities of children. It is true that Parental ownership level varies among parents. For example, mother parent of young children, educated or uneducated parents, father’s involvement, their economic status, family background, social environment. It is observed that Parental ownership with children from early age has been found to equate with better outcomes specially in building their personalities parents are primary guides to them, children try to copy them, and considered them that they are always write so parents can shape their life as they can. Their involvement has positive impact on children academic achievement even when the background factor of such as social class, family size, has been taken into account.

Parental ownership may have very essential in school-based activities of their children. These activities may involve contacts with teachers, checking the attendance of children in school, monitoring their activities in school, checking their periodical academic progress reports. All these things might be very helpful in higher level academic achievements of children. Parents become more concerned about the learning opportunities that secondary schools provide. As children move from the middle grades to the secondary school, parents also crystallize their educational expectations for their children. As students complete school education, parents become increasingly concerned about their teen’s further education and about the effects of secondary school programs on postsecondary opportunities.

The study adopted a mixed methodology approach and concurrent triangulation design. The target population of the study was a total of 17568 respondents consisting of 16800 student, 48 principals and 720 teachers. The researcher used stratified sampling to get the 8 principals and purposive sampling to get 720 teachers and 64 students. The researcher used questionnaires and interview schedules to collect data from principals, teachers and student. Piloting of the research instruments was done in10% of the sample size in the neighboring Nyamira Sub-County. Validity was measured by face and content validity while reliability of research instruments was checked through test and retest method, the reliability coefficient was computed using Pearson Product correlation coefficient where a coefficient of less than 0.07 was deemed dependable. Qualitative data was analyzed using themes and presented using narratives while quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 21 and data will be presented by way of statistical abstracts like pie charts, bar graphs and frequency tables.

Descriptive analysis on the Influence of parental ownership on management of academic performance in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County, Kenya

The study is aimed at establishing the influence of parental ownership on management of academic performance in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County, Kenya. This was rated with a degree of agreement or disagreements i.e. strongly agree (SA), Agree (A), Neither (N), Disagree (D), and Strongly Disagree (SDA). 

Table 1: Teachers view on Parents' Participation in Decision Making of Students' Academic Performance

Source: Field Data (2020)

Table 2: Students View on Parents' Participation in Decision Making of Students' Academic Performance

Source: Field Data (2020)

Table 3: Parental Involvement in the I.E.P. Formulation

Teachers view on the above statements were sought, and on statement on whether parents aspire their daughter get married immediately after primary schools, parents encourage their daughters to assist in domestic chores after school, parents encourage their sons to help in domestic chores after school were all strongly disagreed with a mean above 3.0. Advocacy roles for fortifying links between schools and parents, parents giving gifts to their children when they perform well in the examination and whether students participate actively during lessons were all strongly agreed.

Student's views on the above statements were sought as follows; on the statements of parents aspiring their daughters to get married immediately after primary schools and parents encouraging their children to assist in domestic chores after school were strongly disagreed with a mean above 3.0. On advocacy roles for fortifying links between schools and parents and parents giving gifts to their children when they perform well in the examination were strongly agreed with a mean of 3.2 and 3.0 respectively.

Interviewee's opinion on this objective pointed out that parental participation in decision-making, when it is comprehensive program involving parents in learning support activities as well, is associated with improved student outcomes. Parent and community involvement in decision-making may also help make schools more accountable to the community. Parental participation in school decision-making may be strengthened by including parents in school site councils, parent-teacher associations, and other committees. Outcomes from type five activities include the benefits of policies that are enacted on behalf of students. Students are also likely to become aware of family representation in school decisions. Parents are expected to develop opportunities for input, feelings of ownership, an understanding of policies, and a sense of connection with other families.

Inferential Analysis on the Influence of parental ownership on management of academic performance in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County, Kenya

The correlation results showed perfect significance hence showing that the percentages were drawn from the frequencies.

Thematic analysis on the on Influence of parental ownership on management of academic performance in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County, Kenya

For this objective, the researcher interviewed heat teachers who agreed that there was significant relationship between parental ownership on management of academic performance. One head teacher observed, 

“Parents who are fully involved in their children academic performance help them achieve more in school; this helps the student to be more independent in learning as they are supported by their parents”. (Head teacher 2)

Mixing and interpreting data on parental ownership on management of academic performance

Interpretation for descriptive, inferential and thematic was mixed and interpreted. It was clear that the Parental Involvement had an influence on academic performance. More has to be done on the involvement of parents in the academic performance of students in secondary school in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County,Kenya.  The findings of the study revealed that parents are involved in supporting school related activities through proving school fees and scholastic materials; disciplining their children and providing them with moral support. Besides the issue of parents supporting their children in school per se, however, is the issue of parental participation in the management of the schools that their children attend. It is in this regard that the findings of the study depart from the findings of earlier researchers into parental participation in schools and its implications for school effectiveness. Specifically, critical consideration of the findings of the study indicates that although the parents are involved in supporting their children's school education in some ways, generally speaking, they are not involved in the management of these schools. At the least, some of the data collected indicated that parents are represented in the school management committees like Parents' Teachers' Associations and Boards of Governors but even then, the school managers prominently deemphasized the contribution of the parents that are appointed to these committees, which further brings to question the role of parents in the management of their children's schools.

As such, the study established that although parents Kitutu Central Sub County have been involved in supporting the education of their children, they have not done so in ways that are similar to those enumerated by Nancy and Lorraine [3]. This emphasizes volunteering at school, communicating with teachers and other school personnel, assisting in academic activities at home and attending school events, with which they associate reciprocal benefits for the schools and for the parents and, ultimately, good academic performance. This means that, in discussing parental involvement in schools and their performance in Kitutu Central Sub County, focus should be shifted from asking as to whether parents have been involved in supporting school activities to asking as to how they have been involved and, ultimately, why they have not been involved in the management of these schools. To this end, the findings of the study are extending the discussion on parental involvement in schools and the schools' performance. Specifically, on top of affirming relationship between the involvement of parents in supporting schools and the schools' academic performance, the findings of the study are moving the foci of the discussion from sheer involvement to giving attention to the ways in which parents are involved and why [4-7].

Looked at broadly, and in the context of the study, which was concerned with the effect of parental involvement in school activities and its relationship with the academic performance of these schools, the findings of the study introduce a new dimension to the debate on parental involvement in schools in Kitutu Central Sub County. Hitherto, the focus has been on the influence parents and why they are not fully involved in school management despite the fact that such involvement could enhance school effectiveness and, subsequently, academic performance. Nevertheless, the study has highlighted the need for the schools to also examine themselves, specifically looking at what they could do to enhance   parental   involvement   in their   management.

Moreover, in settings where many parents may not have undergone formal education themselves like Kitutu Central Sub County, the parents may need special encouragement to be able to take up explicit roles in school management. In particular, the finding that parents in Kitutu Central Sub County are playing some roles in support of their children's education but are not as active in the management of the schools’ points to the chance that they are willing but unable to participate when it comes to the management of the schools. This means that rather than castigate parents for noninvolvement in the management of their children's schools, it should be understood as to why the parents are not involved in school management [8-12].

The question pertaining to the effect of parents' participation in the financing of schools on the schools' academic performance was raised because the availability of financial resources is usually key to school effectiveness yet several issues were not known about parents' involvement in the financing and academic performance of schools in Kitutu Central Sub County. The question pertaining to the influence of parents' participation in the financing of schools on the schools' academic performance was raised because the availability of financial resources is usually key to school effectiveness yet several issues were not known about parents' involvement in the financing and academic performance of schools in Kitutu Central Sub County, Kisii County. This was despite the fact that Ssekamwa had already observed that since the Second World War, parents have been the most important source of school finances, meaning that in settings where academic performance is unimpressive, it is important to understand the contribution of the degree of the relevant parents' support to this unimpressive performance.

The study made the following conclusions; parents have a role to play in the decision making of these resources available in schools, since they are expected to contribute towards the preparation of their children for academic excellence. Besides the issue of parents supporting their children in school, however, is the issue of parental participation in the management of the schools that their children attend. It is in this regard that the findings of the study depart from the findings of earlier researchers into parental participation in schools and its implications for school effectiveness. Specifically, critical consideration of the findings of the study indicates that although the parents are involved in supporting their children's school education in some ways, generally speaking, they are not involved in the management of these schools. At the least, some of the data collected indicated that parents are represented in the school management committees like Parents' Teachers' Associations and Boards of Governors but even then, the school managers prominently deemphasized the contribution of the parents that are appointed to these committees, which further brings to question the role of parents in the management of their children's schools. Moreover, in settings where many parents may not have undergone formal education themselves like Kitutu Central Sub County, the parents may need special encouragement to be able to take up explicit roles in school management. In particular, the finding that parents in Kitutu Central Sub County are playing some roles in support of their children's education but are not as active in the management of the schools points to the chance that they are willing but unable to participate when it comes to the management of the schools. This means that rather than castigate parents for noninvolvement in the management of their children's schools, it should be understood as to why the parents are not involved in school management.

Recommendations

The study made the following recommendations:

• Government should make a policy directing parents to participate in the management of these schools (on top of supporting the children in the ways that they were found to be supporting them). On the other hand, parents should make it possible for them to do so
• This could be done through encouraging the parents to take up specific roles in school management and indicating the values of their involvement in school management let alone making it possible for them to participate in school managerial activities through conducting the managerial functions in which they are involved in ways and in modes of communication that the parents comfortably understand

It is also recommended that the managers of the schools in Kitutu Central Sub County devise non-tuition related means of financing their schools, since the parents do not have sufficient capacity to support their children's education satisfactorily. This could be done through the undertaking of income generating projects and attraction of donations, which could ensure that the managers of the schools are able to top up the fees collected from the students and be in a better position to achieve good results.

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