Parents Participation in Education and English-Speaking Skill Improvement in Rwandan Primary Schools in Musanze District

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the parents’ participation and English-speaking skill improvement in Rwandan primary schools in Musanze District. The specific objectives were to assess the influence of encourage reading at home on English speaking skills improvement, to identify the effect of home learning on English speaking skills improvement and to examine the impact of parents’ participation on English speaking skill improvement in Rwandan primary schools in Musanze district. The target population included 210 and was made of teachers and parents. A sample size of 138 respondents was drawn from the target population. The simple random sampling was used. Parents were sampled using a purposive sampling technique. The study adopted a survey research design and correlation research design. The structured questionnaire and guided interview were used as instruments of data collection. SPSS version 21 was used for data analysis. The study revealed the majority of the students agreed their parents finance them to succeed in English, as the mean score was 3.05 with a standard deviation of 1.41. Moreover, the majority of the teachers confirmed that they sensitize the parents to help their children at home as the mean score value was 3.44 with a standard deviation of 1.47. On objective two, the study found a mean score of 3.09 and a standard deviation of 1.42, corresponding with 52.2%; thus, most of the students agreed that they have fluent speaking skills and effective communication. Regarding teachers, the mean score value was 3.54 with a standard deviation of 1.41 and this confirmed majority of the teachers agreed they have personnel improvement related to the success and having speaking skills. On objective three, the study revealed that 91.2% of parental involvement could affect the level of English-speaking skills improvement in primary schools as indicated by the R square =.912. This implied that the remaining 8.8% of English-speaking skills improvement in primary schools which can be affected by other factors. On the other hand, the findings also revealed that there was a statistically significance high degree of relationship between parents’ participation and English-speaking skills improvement thus P-value = .000 which is less than .01 as the level of significance and Pearson coefficient of correlation r = .955. The study recommended that Ministry of Education should provide regularly the professional trainings associated within language as a language of instruction in order to keep maintaining level of teaching environment.

Keywords: Parental involvement, English speaking, skill mastery, Primary schools, Rwanda