LEVEL OF PARENTAL EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT FOR STUDENT LEARNING

Abstract

Parents are the first teachers of their children, and their performance in school and overall well-being is influenced by them. Playing a significant role in educating children, parents are individuals who influence student behaviour through direct or indirect action. Parental support for student learning has a significant effect on student wellbeing and academic achievement. This research was aimed at determining parental educational support for student learning, mainly taking into account gender differences as a factor among secondary school children in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka faces notable gender disparities in academic performance, with girls outperforming boys at every level of the educational system (Tushani and Sarma. The study used a survey research design and a questionnaire instrument for data collection. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 1350 secondary school students. To analyse the data, the research used descriptive analyses such as mean, standard deviation and MANOVA analysis. The findings of the study demonstrate that parental educational support for student learning is was at a high level (overall mean of 4.296, overall S.D. of 0.702) among secondary school choldren in Sri Lanka. MANOVA analysis shows significant differences in parental educational support based on gender as parental educational support for female student learning is significantly higher than male students. Both father and mother should maximise their educational support for boys’ education, such as providing necessary educational materials or resources, encouraging learning that can improve the educational wellbeing of children in Sri Lanka.