Parental Marital Status as a Determinant of Their Involvement in Pre-primary School Activities in Yatta Sub-County, Machakos County, Kenya
Paul Musyoki Makau, Hannah Kangara & Hudson Ouko Ong’ang’a
School of Education
Mount Kenya University
Email: paulmakau10@gmail.com
Abstract: Parents’ involvement in pre-primary school activities is important in ensuring that learners acquire quality education. However, in Yatta Sub-County, levels of parents’ involvement in school meetings, volunteering activities and learning material development is low. The study sought to examine how parental marital status determines their involvement in public pre-primary school activities in Yatta Sub-County. The study was guided by the dynamic theory of determinants and the parental involvement theory. The study adopted a mixed methodology and thus applied concurrent triangulation research design. Target population was 256 respondents which comprised 64 headteachers, 128 pre-primary schoolteachers and 64 parent representatives from which a sample of 155 respondents was determined using Yamane’s Formula. This consisted of 15 headteachers, 15 parents’ representatives and 125 pre-primary schoolteachers. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically along the objectives and presented in narrative forms. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively by computing frequencies and percentages while inferential analysis was done by running Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis in Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS 25) and presented using tables. The study established that parents rarely participated in pre-primary school education of their children. Parents rarely attended school meetings, participated in volunteering activities or development of learning materials. This could be attributed to their marital status. The study recommends that parents value the education of their children regardless of their marital status and participate in their pre-primary school activities. They also focus on creating a stable routine at home that includes designated study times, emotional support and encouragement.
