Relating Parents’ Educational Attainment to Students’ Academic Performance in Selected Primary Schools in Rural Jamaica

Low academic performance in some primary schools in Jamaica remains a concern to education sector stakeholders in spite the interventions made over the years to improve it. The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was to examine the influence of Parents’ Educational Attainment (PEA) on children’s academic performance. Questionnaires were used to extract information from a purposively drawn sample of 144 students, and 144 parents. In addition, an online focus group (FGD) discussion using FGD protocol was done with fourteen (14) parents.
Quantitative data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that parental educational attainments had a positive influence on children’s educational outcomes explaining up to 26 percent of variations in the children’s’ academic achievement. There was also a positive association between parental involvement in educational programmes and initiatives and the student’s academic performance and educational outcomes with a mean of 4.023. However, the study revealed that parental educational attainment was not a reliable predictor of children’s educational outcomes as it explained only 26 percent of the variations in the educational attainment of the children leaving 74 percent to other factors outside the study. The study concluded that parental educational attainment influences children’s academic though, it was not a reliable predictor. The study recommends promotion of positive parenting skills and creation of homework centres to assist both learners and parents. Future research could focus on sector wide factors that influence children’s educational attainment in Jamaica.