The Interaction Between Socioeconomic Status and Preschool Education on Academic Achievement of Elementary School Students

Abstract

Preschool education may help increase the academic achievement of school-age students. Still, for a segment in society, this is not feasible and children are not admitted into preschool due to parents’ socioeconomic status. The purpose of this study was to measure the interaction between socioeconomic status and preschool education on students’ academic achievement in Bahraini government elementary schools. The study adopted a quantitive approach. The sample was 402 girls and boys in grades 1 through 6. The results showed that students who had preschool education had better academic achievement than those who did not. There were no significant differences in students’ later academic achievement with reference to socioeconomic status, and there was no interaction between preschool education and socioeconomic status on academic achievement. It was recommended that policymakers should encourage the private and public sectors to invest in preschool education, to conduct further research on the impact of socio-economic status on academic achievement at different school levels and to expand the dimensions of SES to include parents’ skills and marital relationships and their impact on children’s achievement.