The nature and influence of parental involvement in their children’s education in a public primary school in the eden and central karoo district in the Western Cape.

Abstract

Parent involvement in schools in Eden and Central Karoo is at a very low level. Legislation allows parents to be involved in the governance of schools through the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996. Chapter 3, section 20(h), of the Act stipulates that the governing body must encourage parents, learners, educators, and other staff at the school to render voluntary services to the school. The power and authority given to parents should, therefore, assist school managers and teachers with an increase in parental involvement of parents at schools. The thesis explores the nature of parents’ involvement in the education of their children as well as what hinders them from being involved. The problem statement required an investigation into the low levels of parent involvement to assist school managers and the school governing body in finding mechanisms to increase parental involvement in children’s education. A questionnaire and open-ended questions were used to extract feedback from parents, the school principal, and educators. The open-ended questions allowed parents to indicate reasons for their low level of involvement in their children’s education. It also allowed parents the opportunity to air their views on what can be done to improve parental involvement at the school. The questions to teachers were to extract responses on the nature of parents’ involvement and what factors hinder them from becoming involved in their children’s education. Results from the study participants indicated that parents’ working conditions, communication from the school, transport issues, and educational levels of parents are the common factors for the low level of parental involvement. School atmosphere is to a lesser extent one of the reasons for parents not becoming involved in their children’s education. The factors raised by the participants can be linked to Epstein and Salinas’s (2004) classification of types of parental involvement. The school can use their typology as a guide to improve parental involvement at institutional level.