Parents Teachers Association’s Participation Activities and Selected Public Secondary Schools’ Students Academic Performance in Rwanda

Abstract

The participation of parents and teachers in the performance of school activities plays a significant role in both teachers and students’ school performance. The government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Education has put a lot of emphasis to involve educational stakeholders in various school activities. However, the effectiveness of PTA in some public secondary schools in Rwanda is low. This formed the motive of the study to assess the influence of Parents Teachers Association (PTA)’s participation activities on public secondary schools students’ academic performance in Nyamagabe district in Rwanda. This paper employed correlation research design. The target population was 240 people corresponding to the sample size of 156 respondents by using Yamane formula. Questionnaire and guided interview were used as data collection instruments. The findings of the study revealed that 83.9% of the variations in students’ academic performance was influenced by PTA’s participation activities as R square was 0.839. The remaining 16.1% of school students’ academic performance could be influenced by other factors. The findings also revealed there is a statistically significance high degree of positive relationship between PTA’s participation activities and school students’ academic performance as the P-value was 0.000 which was less than 0.0. The Pearson coefficient of correlation (r) was 0. 866.  The study concluded that effective participation of PTA members in school activities improve the school students’ academic performance. The study recommended that school head teachers should work hand in hand with parents and also create active participation of Parents Teacher Association (PTA) committee in performance of various school activities in order to improve the school performance. Teachers should strengthen collaboration with parents in order to share various strategies which could be used to make conducive teaching environment and enhance the school students’ performance. Moreover, parents should give their participation in performance of school activities and make effective communication with school staffs in order to develop the effective learning conditions of their children.

Keywords: Parents Teacher Association, school activities, academic performance, Public Secondary Schools, Rwanda