Effect of Parental Involvement by the Headteachers in the Education of their Children on Students Retention in Masinga Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The study focuses on the effect of parents’ involvement by head teachers in the education of their children and students’ retention in secondary school education in Masinga sub – county Kenya. It was guided by the following objective: to determine the extent to which parents’ involvement by the headteachers in the education of their children influences students’ retention in secondary school education. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study was anchored on Epstein theory. The target population was 50 head teachers,50 deputy head teachers and 5022 form 3 and 4 students. Purposive, stratified proportionate sampling and simple random sampling were employed to sample 25 head teachers, 25 deputy head teachers and 370 students. Data collection instruments included questionnaires for headteachers and students, an interview guide for deputy headteachers and a document analysis guide. Validity of the research instruments was ascertained through expert judgement and piloting. Reliability was achieved through test – retest method where the instruments were piloted in a time interval of two weeks and the two results were correlated using Pearson’s product moment correlation method. Further, inferential analysis was employed that involved correlational analysis at a 0.05 level of significance. The hypothesis was accepted or rejected at 0.01 level of significance. The findings showed that there is a positive correction between parents’ involvement in the education of their children and students’ retention (r = 0.811; p = 0.00), hence the hypothesis was rejected and an alternative hypothesis accepted. The study concluded that the head teachers’ efforts to engage parents in the educational matters positively influence students’ retention. The study recommends that head teachers should use more communication strategies in order to involve all the parents in the education of their children.