Optimization of the educational achievement of children utilising Parent Participating Associations in the schools of Kerala

Abstract

The aim of the present investigation is to find out how the educational achievement of children can be optimized utilizing Parent-Participating Associations (PPA) in the schools of Kerala. Normative survey method has been adopted for this purpose. The total sample consists of 2880 children, 720 teachers and 720 parents. Stratified sampling technique has been applied to obtain the representative sample for the study. In addition to this, data were also collected from District Educational Officers (DEOs), Assistant Educational Officers (AEOs), DIET faculty members, Block Resource Centre (BRC) trainers, Cluster Resource Centre (CRC) members, Panchayat Education Committee (PEC) members and Headmasters of schools in the fourteen districts of Kerala. The tools used for the study were (1) Opinionnaire for Teachers; (2) Opinionnaire for Parents; (3) Questionnaire for Students (4) Opinionnaire for DEOs, AEOs, CRC members, DIET faculty members, Panchayat Education Committee (PRCs) members, BRC trainers and Headmasters and (4) Observation Schedule for PTA General Body Meeting. Statistical techniques such as t-test, ANOVA and Spearman Rank Correlation were done in order to analyse the data. The overall findings of the study show that the academic achievement of students is greatly influenced by the proper functioning of PPA, parental involvement, teacher involvement, learning environment (family support, school support and outside support), infrastructure facilities, club activities, students educational behaviour and academic enrichment programmes. The study recommends that the Parent-Participating Associations (PPA) have to actively intervene in the curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities of the students and give due importance to ensure that all students in the school get the benefits of the programmes made available to them as it was found that a sizeable proportion of the students do not get benefited by these programmes.