Parental Support and Academic Performance of Public Secondary School Students from Nomadic Families in Wajir County, Kenya

The study investigated the influence of parental support on academic achievements of learners from nomadic families in Wajir County Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives: to investigate the influence of home related parental support on the performance of government sponsored high school learners from nomadic families and; to examine the influence of schools related parental support on the performance of government sponsored high school learners from nomadic families in Wajir County Kenya. The study employed descriptive research design. The target population were 12 teachers, 48 parents and 100 students in Wajir County. A sample of 160 participants was used. Convenience sampling was used to sample parents, purposive sampling was used to sample teachers and simple random sampling was used to sample students. Data was collected through questionnaires. Pilot-test of the instrument was done in one school. Scientific packages for social sciences were utilized to analyze data descriptively and inferentially through linear regression to test the association at 95% confidence interval. The study revealed that in Wajir County, home related and schools related parental support greatly influenced students’ academic performance. The findings further showed that generally there was a statistically significant relationship between parental support and academic performance of learners from nomadic families in Wajir County, Kenya. The study therefore concludes that parental support influences academic performance of learners from nomadic families in Wajir County. The contribution to the field of education is that it is amongst the few available studies addressing the effects of parental involvement on academic performance among learners from nomadic families especially in Kenya where such studies are very limited. The study recommends that a concerted effort must be undertaken by academic stakeholders to find effective measures for enhancing nomadic parents’ involvement in their childrens education as this has been found to improve academic outcomes of learners from such families.