Abstract:
The study investigated parental contribution towards the educational development of basic school pupils in the Dangme West District. It sought to assess major contributions parents make, their perceptions of the importance of contributing to pupil’s educational development and challenges they face.
A total of 288 parents having their children in ten (10) basic schools and 40 teachers were randomly and purposively selected for the study. Pupils were randomly sampled from the selected schools in order to reach their respective parents. The instrument used for data collection was a set of questionnaires with reliability co-efficient of 0.96, 0.94 and 0.84, using Cronbach Alpha formula. The descriptive survey research method was adopted for the study.
Finding from the study revealed that: paying children’s welfare (pocket money, transportation to school, canteen); paying of official and approved levies by the Ghana Education Service and PTA dues; ensuring that pupils go to school regularly; feeding pupils before they go to school; providing good hygiene; and giving pupils psychological needs; were the major contributions of parents.
It was, however, found that parents do not provide enough motivation for their children to learn even though they ensure they go to school regularly. They do not help them do home work; they do not visit their schools to assess their progress and they do not purchase text books and other materials. The major challenges parents face was financial constraints and large family size.
