The Role of Mothers’ Educational Attainment in Shaping Secondary School Students’ Academic Success in Bureti Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

Education is a fundamental pillar of individual and national development, and it is both a societal and parental responsibility to ensure children’s access to quality learning opportunities. Despite continuous investment in Kenya’s secondary education sector, disparities in academic performance remain evident across schools in varied counties. Existing international and local research indicates that parents’ educational attainment influences students’ achievement through factors such as home literacy environments, parental expectations, and academic support. This study examined the relationship between parental level of education and academic achievement among students in public secondary schools in Bureti sub county, Kenya. Specifically, it sought to determine the extent to which mothers’ educational attainment predicts students’ academic success. The study was guided by the Human Capital and the Classical Educational Production Function Theories. An ex post facto, descriptive, and correlational research design was adopted. Snowball and saturated sampling techniques were employed to select participants, while data were collected through questionnaires, interview schedules, focus group discussions, and document analysis guides. Quantitative data were analyzed using cohort analysis, descriptive, and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were thematically analyzed. The findings revealed a strong positive relationship between a mothers’ educational attainment and students’ academic success, with a correlation coefficient of 0.826**. The coefficient of determination (R² = 0.6822) indicated that the mother’s level of education accounted for 68.22% of the variance in students’ Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) performance. These findings underscore the pivotal role of maternal education in shaping academic outcomes and highlight the importance of promoting equitable access to education for both boys and girls, as this has far-reaching implications for future generations.