Parental Involvement in Student’s Academic Performance: Can Parents Shift the Responsibility to Private Tutors?

Abstract

Parent involvement in education has found to be associated with a variety of positive academic outcomes, including higher academic achievement, lower dropout rates, less retention, positive behavioral outcomes and higher levels of social skills. Thus, Parental involvement in student education is considered strategically important to improve academic achievement. This study explores impact of parental involvement activities on student’s academic performance using the data collected from 475 students in grade 6 to grade 11 in three different districts in Sri Lanka in the year of 2017. It was found that parental involvement is directly and indirectly affect performance while private tutoring only partially mediate the relationship. Results revealed by this study can be considered in setting concrete pattern of behavior of parental involvement in order to maximize the performance of students.

Keywords: Parental involvement, private tutoring, student performance, Sri Lanka