PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND PUPILS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AT MWIKI PUBLIC COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL IN RUIRU SUB-COUNTY, KIAMBU COUNTY, KENYA

Parental involvement in homework support is a key approach in improving academic performance of pupils. Recently, the new curriculum launched in 2017 involved the parents in the activities of the pupils. Therefore, the study general objective was to examine the effect of parental involvement on pupils’ academic performance at Mwiki public comprehensive school in Ruiru sub-county, Kiambu county, Kenya. Specific objective was to determine the effect of homework support on the pupils’ academic performance. The study was founded on Epstein framework. Descriptive research design was employed since no manipulation of the variables by the researcher. The target population comprised of 682 pupils from which a sample of 246 pupils was obtained using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected using questionnaires while data analysis involved both descriptive and inferential statistics. Hypothesis testing was carried out at 5% significance level and F-statistic was used to test the significance of the model and computed at 95% confidence level. Quantitative data was presented inform of tables and chart. The study found that homework support has a positive significant effect on pupils’ academic performance at Mwiki public comprehensive school in Ruiru sub-county, Kiambu county, Kenya. The study recommends that the school should have more of the parents’ tailored programs and capacity building on significance of their involvement in children academic progress in order to enhance the students’ academic performance. In addition, parents should ensure friendly atmosphere when assisting the pupils during homework assignment. The study called on future research to examine, the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic performance in other levels of education. For instance, senior secondary schools, technical institutes and even universities.