| dc.description.abstract | Education is universally valued for both private and social returns. This forms the justification by individuals, groups and globally for investmenting on education and concern for failure. Factors influencing performance are a concern the world over. Daily interaction of Day secondary school students with the school and home environment could affect their performance and achievement levels in the school. The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of home environment factors on academic performance in day secondary schools in Muhoroni District. The study was guided by research objectives, questions and hypotheses that included the influence of parents level of education and socio economic status on academic performance, the influence of family size and the influence of distance from school on academic performance of day secondary school students.
Literature review covered relevant texts and documents on influence of home environment on academic performance of students The research was anchored on the socio capital theory that states that socio capital and resources at family level provide students with advantages to be successful at school. The researcher adopted ex post facto research desigris. The study was carried out in Muhoroni district day secondary schools. A sample of 132 students was taken among form four students in the district which was 20% of the target population. The researcher used questionnaires for the selected respondents for data collection.
Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used which included frequency tables, cross tabulations together with chi square for the hypotheses. The results of the study showed that family size had an influence on academic performance with chi square test of p-value 0.000 which was less than 0.05 at 95 % confidence level. Family socio economic status was found to have influence on academic performance at a chi square p-value of 0.035. Parent's level of education also had influence on academic performance at p-value of 0.000 and distance from school was found to influence the performance of girls at a p-value of 0.004.
Thus, the null hypotheses were rejected in all the cases. The study concluded that home environment influenced academic performance of day secondary school students. The study therefore recommended that bursaries should be given to academically gifted students to enable them go to good boarding schools and perform well, policy recommendations include enhancing the free secondary education to include boarding fees and that parents should strive to provide basic resources at home such as good lighting, reading materials and a conducive environment for reading to their children who attend day schools.
The study has contributed to the body of knowledge in a number of ways including encouraging families to have small well planned families they can take care of satisfactorily. It has contributed the fact that parents who show interest in their children's education and give the attention it deserves inspire such children to excel in their academic endeavors. The study suggested that further research needs to be done to compare the academic performance of day students and their boarding counterparts. It also suggests the need for research on academic performance of children who leave alone. | en_US |
