The Impact of Slum Dwelling on the Academic Performance of Children; A Study of Nima R/C Basic School
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
General objective
The general objective of this study was to assess the relationship between slum dwellings and students’ academic performance in Nima R/C Basic School, Ghana.
Specific objectives
The study had the following specific objectives:
- To examine the slum dwelling factors associated with students’ academic performance in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana;
- To investigate academic performance indicators that can be attributed to slum dwelling factors in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana;
- To establish the relationship between slum dwelling factors and academic performance in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
This chapter consists of theoretical literature, empirical literature, critical review and research gap identification, conceptual framework and summary.
Theoretical literature
Students’ academic performance depends on a variety of factors. Ampofo (2015) states that students differ in learning as a function of their prior experiences, personal qualities and social supports. The social supports include parental care and involvement in education and peer supports. Swatantra (1971) cited in Azra (2007) states that there are the social factors found at home which negatively affect children achievements. These are the poor relations between parents and children, parents’ inconsistency of behavior, discord among parents, parental non-adjustments and emotional outburst. The socioeconomic status at home is another factor of academic performance identified by many researchers. According to Graetz (1995) and Considine & Zappala (2002) cited in Kyoshaba (2009) one’s educational success depends very strongly on social economic status of the parents. They argue that families where the parents are advantaged socially, educationally and economically foster a high level of achievement in their children. They add that students from high social economic backgrounds are well exposed to scholastic materials, which aid their intelligence. More other factors of academic performance are listed by Ampofo (2015) and these are the parental involvement, parents’ academic ambition for their wards, peer influence, child’s academic ambition and child’s effort. Farooq (2011) states that academic performance depend on factors inside and outside school. He states that family characteristics like socio economic status are significant predictors for students’ performance at school besides the other school factors, peer factors and student factors. He adds that parental education and occupation also have effects on students’ academic performance.
In Ghana, many efforts are being made to ensure all children have access to basic education including the most vulnerable children and children from poor families. Policies have been put in place to tackle all the issues related to access, retention, equity and quality. These policies are mainly the Girls’ Education Policy, the Higher Education Policy, Quality Standards in Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Special Needs Education Policy, Teacher Development and Management Policy, Technical and Vocational Education and Training Policy and Education for all policy among others.
However, the quality of primary education has not been able to match the pace of improvements in access. On that issue, the government of Ghana is showing strong political commitment to address this with the focus of providing quality education for all in the next five years education sector strategic plan. This is reflected in Education for all goal six which is about quality in education. It states that quality education involves the sufficient and effective supply of direct resources to schools including infrastructure, teachers, and teaching and learning materials, pedagogical support, a supportive school climate, and effective management and administration of the education system. It further states that Student learning is also influenced by the extent and nature of parent and community support to schools, as well as by the socioeconomic characteristics of children and their families. It adds that a low level of parental involvement in children’s education has been observed and that there is need of increased awareness around parental responsibilities in education. The World Bank ( 2011) cited in MINEDUC (2015) states that a quality education is defined as all children leaving school equipped with the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values needed for Ghana’s economic and social development and for their own further educational and social development. It adds that examination results or pass rates as proxy indicators for the quality education. These results depend on a variety of factors.
This study was conducted with the purpose to dig out the relationship between home characteristics and learning achievement in the context of Ghana where quality of education is a central concern. It investigated slum dwelling factors including parental involvement and other socio economic characteristics in families that contribute to students’ learning and achievements here considered as academic performance.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter consists of the methodological approaches that were used while conducting this research. It shows the research design and methodology, the target population, the sample design and sampling technique, the data collection method, administration of data collection, reliability and validity, data analysis and ethical consideration.
Research design
This study used a descriptive survey research design and was conducted using a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods. On one hand with quantitative method, a survey was used whereby questionnaires were administered to teachers and sampled students in the course of the study. On the other hand with qualitative method, a focus group was conducted with parents of the sampled students.
Target population
The population in this study consisted of three categories of people around schools in Accra. The three categories of people were specifically students from three classes systematically selected from schools, their teachers and their parents. The total number of primary schools in Accra is of 102 according to Accra (2015). Participants and respondents in this study were students taken from those schools. With the purpose to get a target population of students that purely links with performance as the main focus of this study, the extremes of performance were considered as the targeted students. This study targeted the two extremes of students based on performance; one extreme with the highest score and another with the lowest score per each level based on school records of the academic year 2015. The study also focused on parents of targeted students and on their teachers
CHAPTER FOUR
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Introduction
This chapter presents results and discusses the findings. It analyses and interprets results as per the research objective which was to assess the relationship between slum dwelling factors and students’ academic performance in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana. This chapter comprises demographic characteristics of respondents and a presentation of findings per objectives.
CHAPITER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter discusses summary of the findings in regard with research objectives, conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions for further research following research objectives.
Summary of the findings
The purpose of this study was to examine the slum dwelling factors associated with students’ academic performance, to investigate academic performance indicators that can be attributed to slum dwelling factors and to establish the relationship between slum dwelling factors and academic performance in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana. The results from the survey with teachers and students, and from the focus group with parents have shown that there is a relationship between home environment conditions and students ‘academic performance. Results also show that those home conditions are coupled with parents’ perceptions on their roles to support their children in the learning process.
Slum dwelling factors associated with students’ academic performance in both Slums and urban setting
Information on this objective was gathered through questionnaires from teachers and students. From responses of teachers, the provision of time for revision at home was revealed to be among the most important factors represented by 100% of teachers who either strongly agree or agree that it is a home factor of academic performance. This was linked to the difference observed in the rate of their students who confirm being often encouraged to revise at home among the two categories of students; excellent
and poor performers. Students of the category of poor performers who confirmed being encouraged to revise either a few times or often are only represented by 30% whereas students of the category of excellent performers who confirmed being encouraged to revise a few times or often are represented by 100%. The correlation between academic performance and being encouraged to revise at home r=0.7 which is strong and positive implies that being encouraged to revise at home is a strong factor of academic performance.
Another factor is the family support for learning which was also revealed to be important as 100% of surveyed teachers either strongly agree or agree that it is a home factor of academic performance. On the side of students, this result is linked to a percentage of 100% of their students in the category of excellent performers who confirm that they are helped to do homework a few times or often whereas only 33.3% of their counterparts confirm the same help. It is also linked with the rate of excellent performers who confirm being encouraged to revise at home either a few times or often of 100% as opposed to the rate of their counterparts of only 30%; the rate of excellent performers who confirm being encouraged to engage in learning situations at home either a few times or often of 100% as opposed to the one of their counterparts of only 31.6%; the rate of excellent performers who confirm that their parents check their notes either a few times or often of 90% as opposed to the one of their counterparts of only 6.7% ; the rate of excellent performers who confirm being assisted to make learning materials either a few times or often of 60% as opposed to the one of their counterparts of 0% in the same domain and the rate of excellent performers who confirm being visited at school either a few times or often of 71.6% as opposed to the one of their counterparts of only 30%. All these results support the idea of teachers that family support for learning is a factor of academic performance.
The social relationship among family members was also confirmed to be an important factor of academic performance by 100 % of surveyed teachers who ether strongly agree or agree with it. This result is consistent with the results in the rate of excellent performer students who confirm being allowed to ask questions to adults either a few times or often which is of 70% as opposed to their counterparts whose rate is only 40%; rate of excellent performers either a few times or often provided time to discuss with adults of 70% as opposed to their counterparts whose rate is only 53.3% on the same issue; rate of excellent performers a few times or often praised for their efforts of 100% as opposed to their counterparts whose rate is only 6.7% on the same issue and a rate of 83.3% of excellent performers a few times or often given time to tell stories at home as opposed to the rate of 53.3% of their counterparts in the same domain.
The presence of materials to support learning at home was also revealed by teachers to be among the most important factors of academic performance as 100% of them either strongly agree or agree with it. This was confirmed in the focus group with parents who stated the presence of materials for learning among the home conditions that may lead to academic performance. This factor is also well linked to the economic status at home confirmed by teachers the majority of teachers (90%) to be among the important factors of academic performance. The link between the two factors was revealed by parents who stated that having enough materials for children to revise at home depends on the income they have. The level of education of parents was also revealed to be a factor of academic performance by 93.4 % of teachers who either strongly agree or agree with it. This result is consistent with the findings from their students ‘responses in a way that the majority of their excellent performers (70%) have fathers who did either secondary or higher level of education while only 5% of poor performers have fathers with that level of education. It is also consistent with results on the level of education of mothers in a way that 76.7% of excellent performers have mothers who have either secondary or higher level of education whereas only 6% of poor performers have mothers with that level of education. These results find link with parents’ responses on what they think they can do to support their children in their studies. During the focus group, parents of excellent performers gave ideas like reading with children at home, giving them assignments at home, buying them books and providing them enough time to revise at home. On the side of parents of poor performers, their answers were almost the same as in the other group but they added that all the help depends on the level of education they have. Parents’ expectations were also confirmed by teachers to be among the important factors of academic performance since 93.3% of teachers either strongly agree or agree with it. This factor was also confirmed by the focus group of parents on what they expect from their children’s performance and level of education. Whereas the expectations of excellent performers’ parents were like having always good marks and attaining the highest possible level of education, the expectations of poor performers’ parents were totally different and some of them expressed that their children cannot attain higher levels of education.
Academic performance indicators that can be attributed to slum dwelling factors in both Slums and urban setting
The investigation on academic performance indicators attributed to home conditions was done through questionnaires of teachers and students. Considering only responses of teachers who strongly agree with statements, presenting well done home works was revealed to be the most important indicators of academic performance attributed to home environment conditions by 80% of surveyed teachers who strongly agree with it. This is consistent with responses from the majority of their excellent performer students (90%) who confirm often getting good marks in home works whereas none (0%) of the poor performer students gave that answer. Getting best scores in class exercises was revealed to be the second most important indicator of academic performance attributed to academic performance attributed to home conditions with 63.3% of teachers who strongly agree with it whereas getting best scores was revealed to be the third indicator with 53.3% of teachers who strongly agree with it. On the side of students, these results match with their responses on how often they got good marks in exams and in class exercises. On the side of excellent performers, 90% of them confirmed having often got good marks in exams and 73.3% of them confirmed having often got good marks in class exercises whereas on the side of poor performers, none (0%) confirmed having often got good marks in the two areas. These results also match with their answers on how often they have repeated in their education history since promotion or repetition depend on average marks students get from class exercises and exams. With this, those results match with responses from the majority of excellent performer students (80%) who confirmed having never repeated whereas 66.6% of their counterparts confirmed having repeated a few times or often.
The forth indicator is the fact of students being selected as leaders which was confirmed by 53.3% of teachers who strongly agreed with it. This result is linked to the responses from the majority of excellent performer students (60%) who confirmed being often selected as leaders in their education history whereas none (0%) of the poor performers gave this answer. The fifth indicator was revealed to be the fact of winning lessons’ related competitions which was confirmed by 50% of surveyed teachers who strongly agreed with it. This matches with the responses from 50% of excellent performer students who confirmed having often won lessons related competitions whereas none (0%) of poor performer students gave that answer.
Relationship between slum dwelling factors and academic performance in both Slums and urban setting.
The results of this study have revealed the association of academic performance with multiple home conditions. Academic performance was correlated with the level of education of the father and this gave a Pearson correlation coefficient r= 0.538 which is a positive correlation with a p-value= 0.000 implying that the relationship is significant. It was also correlated with the level of education of the mother which gave a Pearson correlation coefficient r=0.567 with a p-value= 0.000 implying that there is a significant positive correlation between academic performance and the level of mother’s education. This was also reported by parents that their education is a factor to be able to help children learn. With these results, it is confirmed that there is a significant relationship between academic performance and the level of parents education.
Results of this study also revealed an association of academic performance with family member’s support for learning. This was confirmed with the Pearson correlation coefficients r= 0.46 between academic performance and the help to do homework at home; r= 0.7 between academic performance and encouragement to revise by family members; r=0.537 between academic performance and the fact that parents check lessons ‘notes and r=0.555 between academic performance and the fact that students discuss school progress with parents or other family members. The significance of this relationship was shown by the respective significance values p=0.001, p=0.000, p=0.000, p=0.000. All these results show that there is a significant relationship between academic performance and the support by family members.
Findings from this study also revealed an association between academic performance and psychosocial relations at home. This was confirmed by Pearson correlation coefficients r= 0.445 between academic performance and the fact of being allowed to ask questions to adults, r= 0.407 between academic performance and the fact of being provided time to discuss with adults, r= 0.734 between academic performance and the fact of being praised for efforts and successes, r= 0.4 between academic performance and the fact of having time to tell stories at home and r= 0.229 between academic performance and the fact of being asked to gives ideas and thoughts on issues. The correlation was revealed to be significant for the first four out of the five factors with respective significance values p=0.000, p=0.000, p=0.000 and p=0.033 all less than p=0.05. The relationship between academic performance and being asked to give ideas and thoughts was not revealed to be significant due to a significance value p=0.233 which is greater that p=0.05. With all those results combined, it is seen that there is a relationship between students’ academic performance and psychosocial relationships between the child and adults.
On the relationship between academic performance and the presence of learning materials, the findings showed Pearson correlation coefficients of r= 0.392 between academic performance and the presence of textbooks at home; r=0.556 between academic performance and the presence of journals at home; r=0.474 between academic performance and the presence of story books at home; r= 0.404 between academic performance and the presence of television at home and r= 0.353 between academic performance and the presence of chalkboard at home. The relationship between academic performance and all those factors was revealed to be significant with the significance values p=0.000 for the four first factors and p= 0.33 for the last factor. These results confirm that there is a relationship between students’ academic performance and the presence of materials that support learning at home. The
presence of materials is well linked to the economic status in the home. The link between the two factors was revealed by parents who stated that having enough materials for children to revise at home depends on the income they have.
Conclusions
The first question which guided this study asked about the slum dwelling factors which are associated with the academic performance in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana. The findings have revealed that family support for learning, the social relationship between children and adults, the presence of materials to support learning at home and time for revision at home are the most important slum dwelling factors of academic performance on the same level. Others factors which were given importance according to the findings are the level of education of parents, parents’ expectations and family economic status.
The second question which guided this study asked about the indicators of academic performance attributed to home conditions in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana. According to the findings from the survey of both teachers and students, presenting well done homework, getting best scores in class works, getting best scores in exams, being selected as class leaders and winning in lessons related competitions were revealed to be the most important indicators of performance attributed to home conditions. These are presented by order of importance accorded by respondents.
The third questions asked about the relationship between slum dwelling factors and academic
performance in both Slums and urban setting, Ghana. On this, an association was traced between academic performance and the identified slum dwelling factors. This led to the findings that there is a significant relationship between academic performance and family support for learning, the social relationship between children and adults, the presence of materials to support learning at home , the time provided to students for revision at home, the level of education of parents, parents’ expectations and family economic status.
Recommendations
Basing on the findings of this study and on recommendations given by both teachers, students and parents, the researcher drew a number of recommendations.
The Government should put in place mechanisms for raising parents’ awareness on their roles to create conducive home environment to support children’s learning and enhance their academic performance
The Government should put in place mechanisms that boost the economic situation of families so that they are able to procure necessary learning materials to their children for school and for home hence enhancing their academic performance. The school administration need to increase the number of education days for parents so that parents can be more involved with their student’s academic performance. The SGACs should work hand in hand with school administration and parents to increase parental involvement in their children’s education. Parents should improve their parenting styles, procure home learning materials, create more room to interact with their children, provide enough time for their children to engage in learning situation weather by revising, reading as well as by discussing which affect their learning and academic performance.
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