Socio-economic status of parents and academic performance of students in technical institutes, Ghana

Alfred Kuranchie

doi:10.51867/ajernet.7.3.39

Authors

Alfred Kuranchie Department of Social Studies Education, University of Education, Winneba https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8773-7766

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.7.3.39

Keywords:

Academic Performance, Socio-Economic Status, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Technical Institutes

Abstract

The study was executed to examine the relationship between socio-economic status of parents and academic achievement of students in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutes. Leveraging on the positivism paradigm, correlational research design guided the conduct of the study and analysis of data. Final year students of technical institutes in the Central Region of Ghana constituted the study population and data was gathered using a questionnaire which was self-developed, pre-tested, and administered. The Resource Dilution Model and Family Investment theory underpinned the conduct of the study. Diverse analytical tools were used for the data analysis. The results unveiled that a disproportionate chunk of the students hailed from middle class families with a very small portion from high socio-economic bracket with implications for the students’ education and progress. The findings also evinced a statistically significant positive correlations between socio-economic standing of parents and students’ academic gains. It is concluded that students of technical institutes would do well if their parents’ socio-economic conditions improve necessitating the need for the state to create jobs for parents to be gainfully employed and earn handsome incomes to finance their children’s technical education. If more parents are able to finance their children’s technical education well, it would aid the children’s studies, which could result in improved academic performance, which is a desire of stakeholders of education.

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