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258 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
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International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology, 8(02): 258-264, 2022
Copyright © 2022 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
ISSN: 2455-3778 online
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46501/IJMTST0802042
Available online at: http://www.ijmtst.com/vol8issue02.html
Influence of Family and School Related Factors on
Academic Performance of Students with Reference to
Mathematics
Rajesh Kumar Thagurathi
1Associate Professor, School of Engineering, Pokhara University
Corresponding Author Email Id: rthagurathi@gmail.com
To Cite this Article
Rajesh Kumar Thagurathi. Influence of Family and School Related Factors on Academic Performance of Students
with Reference to Mathematics. International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology 2022, 8, pp.
258-264. https://doi.org/10.46501/IJMTST0802042
Article Info
Received: 18 January 2022; Accepted: 22 February 2022; Published: 25 February 2022
Education not only not only is the medium of being literate but also have been linked with its role in the development of human
capital. Particularly, in a country like ours secondary education is observed as important sector contributing to national and
individual development which convinces by large to focus academic performance of the students as the fundamental part in
educational development.This study thus aims to empirically examine the factors that affect mathematics performance of class
10 students studying in both community and institutional schools in Kaski district, Nepal. The family related factors include
parental education, financial status and family size. Similarly, the school related factors include availability and usage of
teaching learning resources in the school, type of school and location of school. The population of the study comprised students
who have completed class 10 from schools in Kaski district. The study employs Multi-stage stratified random sampling to select
sample 6 community and 6 institutional schools and a sample size of 448 respondents were used by the study using random
sampling. A structured self-administered questionnaire of 5-point Likert scale has been used to collect data and the data collected
has been analyzed using descriptive statistics, T-test, One-way ANOVA, correlation and multiple regression analysis.The study
finds that there is disparity in mathematics performance Students of community schools located in rural municipalities are found
to have relatively weak performance in mathematics subject. Additionally, family related factors like parents’ education, family
income has been found to be important determinants of academic performance. However, school related factors like teaching
learning facilities and teacher characteristics have been found not having significant effect in academic performance of
mathematics.
KEYWORDS: academic performance, school-based factors, mathematics performance.
1. INTRODUCTION
Education, in the global context, is considered as an
element that stimulates socio-economic development of
a nation that contributes in developing knowledge and
skills required for producing human capital that can be
better utilized for the development of national
economy. Education helps individuals to function well
in their environment. Education plays a vital role in the
development of human capital and is linked with an
individual’s opportunities for better living. Particularly,
secondary education is considered as a fundamental
base in many of the nation because of its contributory
ABSTRACT
259 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
role in imparting primary knowledge and skills to the
thriving aspirants ready to contribute to the national
development. Students are the most essential
component of any educational institute and occupies a
very important space in education and educational
process. Their academic performance is a key feature in
academic institution because it has been regarded as the
major indicator of academic deliveries and progresses
of such institutions. Academic performance which is
normally measured bythe examination results, is one of
the major goals of school. Academic performancethe
displays of knowledge attained or skills developed
inthe various disciplines of the school (Busari, 2000). In
addition, academic performance is also regarded as an
indicator of internal efficiency of physical and human
resources and their performance, financial resources
and academic performance, teacher motivation and has
widely been accepted as an element of schools’
promotion.
In this context, this study visualizes
mathematics as a fundamental part of human thought
and logic. Mathematics makes our life orderly and
prevents chaos. Certain qualities that are nurtured by
mathematics are power of reasoning, creativity, abstract
or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving
ability and even effective communication skills.
Mathematics is assumed as a basis of all learning with
other subjects deriving their concepts from it.
Mathematics as a subject affects all aspects of human
life at different levels. It provides the vital
underpinning of the knowledge of economy. Although
all careers require a foundation of mathematical
knowledge, some are mathematics intensive. It is
essential in the natural sciences, technology,
engineering, business, finance, and ICT. It is also of
growing importance in biology, medicine and many of
the social sciences. Mathematics forms the basis of most
scientific and industrial research and development.
Many complex systems and structures in the modern
world can only be understood using mathematics and
much of the design and control of high-technology
systems depends on mathematical inputs and outputs.
Mathematical competence of a student opens
doors for pursuing technical education. A lack of
mathematical competence keeps those doors closed.
Despite knowing the importance of the subject, the
achievement of the majority of the students in this
important subject over the years has not been
encouraging at the SEE/SLC in Nepal. Mathema&Bist
(2006) asserts that the average scores in Mathematics is
lower than the average scores in other subjects, and
lower than the overall average score in the SLC
examinations of Nepal.
It has been the matter of discussion among
academicians and policy makers regarding the factors
affecting students' mathematics performance in school
level. These factors could be inside or outside school
and affect students’ quality of academic achievement.
Crosnoe et al (2004) mentioned that student factors,
family factors, school factors and peer factors are the
responsible for student’s academic performance. The
students’ mathematics performance has to be improved
by providing instruction based on individual student’s
needs and using a variety of methods to reach all
learners. It is salient to explore the responsible factors
which attract or distract the students towards
mathematics. The study therefore considers student
related factors as entry behavior, motivation level and
attitude towards mathematics subject, the family
related factors as parental education, financial status
and family size and finally the school related factors as
availability and usage of teaching learning resources in
the school, type of school and location of school as
major factors affecting academic performance and
assumes them as major influencing factors in academic
performance regarding their performance in
mathematics and rationally aims to support policy
makers, planners, academicians by helping them
identifying the ways to upgrade the mathematics
education of the country.
Objectives
Student’s performance in academics determines his/her
capability to study particular area of study in upper
level. For these reasons, the policy-makers, planners,
educators, and the public as a whole look to the SEE
results to make sense of how their children, schools,
and the education system are doing. In alignment with
this thought,this study attempts to examine the
performance of class 10 students in Kaski district in
mathematics delineating following objectives. The
study thus specifically aims:
to identify the impact of family related factors
(parental education, financial status of family,
260 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
and family size) on mathematics performance
of the students.
to analyze the effect of school-based factors
(availability and use of teaching-learning
resources, school type, and teacher
characteristics) on mathematics performance.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The review has been presented with the impression that
academic performance is an indicator of internal
efficiency of physical resources and academic
performance. Facilities at all levels including
equipment and human resources enhances the quality
and relevance of imparted skills of learners thus
provisions of adequate learning facilities at all levels
promotes better academic performance (Lumuli, 2009).
Learning involves interaction of students with the
environment. Teaching and learning resources include
classrooms, laboratories, libraries, playing fields,
textbooks among others. Indeed physical resources go a
long way in creating conducive environment that
promote effective teaching and learning. It is with this
in mind that school facilities are to some extent
considered as yard sticks to be used to gauge the
quality of secondary school education (RoK, 1995).
Mbugua et al (2012) have used the factors like
student factors such as entry behavior, motivation and
attitude; socio economic factors such as education of
parents and their economic status; and school-based
factor such as availability and usage of
teaching/learning facilities, school type and teacher
characteristics to influence the performance of a student
in mathematics.
According to Farooq et al (2011) family
characteristics like socio-economic status and parents’
education have a significant effect on students’ overall
academic achievement as well as achievement in the
subjects of mathematics. Student’s gender strongly
affects their academic performance, with girls
performing better in the subjects of Mathematics, and
English as well as cumulatively.
Learning involves interaction of students with
the environment. Teaching and learning resources
include classrooms, laboratories, libraries, playing
fields, textbooks among others. Indeed physical
resources go a long way in creating conducive
environment that promote effective teaching and
learning. Juma (2011) links performance in
examinations to state of teaching and learning
resources in schools and summarizes that students
from poor backgrounds perform poorly in the
examinations because the poor reside in areas where
schools are seriously underprivileged of basic physical
facilities, and a sort of defiance gets inculcated in their
early childhood that being in school is a waste of time
may be because of the helplessness situations they
confront.
This reflects that developments in schools and
classroom meant that schools were dealing with more
planned and sophisticated establishment of teaching
learning environment in the school and such schools
were meant to work exceedingly better in improving
the academic performance of the students (Wilson,
2002). Whereas, Ali (2013) finds that the student’s
attitude is a major predictor of his/her performance
specifically in subjects like mathematics. Moreover, the
interactive teaching method is superior to the
traditional approach, especially with respect to
achieving higher order cognitive skills.
Enu et al (2015) revealed that teachers and
students’ self-motivation influence mathematics
performance. Moreover, inadequate teaching and
learning materials as well as lecturer method of
instruction are some of the factors which affect
students’ performance.
Therefore, relying on the past extant literatures
this study assumes academic performance as and
education production function pertaining to various
factors of input such as parental education, financial
status, family size and other school-related factors like
pupil-teacher ratio, instructional materials, physical
facilities that affect the quality of education. Large pool
of past studies studied about the inconsistencies in
school facilities and academic performance considering
policy planning as major element whereas this study
attempts to visualize academic performance being
influenced by family and school based factors and
hence follows the following conceptual framework.
ConceptualFramework:
3. METHODOLOGY
The population for this study is the schools in Kaski
district which are teaching the students of class 10.
261 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
Multi-Stage Stratified Random Sampling technique has
been adopted for this study purpose. The schools have
been divided in to two categories: institutional schools
and community schools. Further, these schools have
been divided into two categories in terms of location
wise: urban (within metropolitan city) and rural (within
rural municipality). Sample students have been selected
randomly using the attendance-sheet of the concerned
school employing systemic random sampling method.
The data have been collected using structured
questionnaire comprising 5-point Likert scales items to
assess family based factors and student related factors
and data were collected through self-administered
structured questionnaire.Internal consistency of the
scales were checked using Cronbach’s Alpha.
Descriptive measures like mean, percentage,
and standard deviation have been used to explore the
descriptive information. Frequency and Percentage
were used to interpret the profile of the respondents
too. Independent sample t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's
correlation coefficient, multiple regression has been
used as inferential statistical tools.
4. MAJOR FINDINGS
Employing the conceptual framework as stated above,
the study discloses and discuss following major finding
and discussions as its key research output.
Profile of Students
There were altogether 448 respondents (students) out of
which 223 students from Government/Community
Schools whereas 225 students fromInstitutional/Private
Schools.
Table1: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of
the Students in terms of School Type
Levels
Counts
% of Total
Government/Community
School Students
223
49.8 %
Institutional/Private School
Students
225
50.2 %
Parents’ Educational Attainment
The following table shows that the father of the
majority of respondents studied class 10 or below
whereas the father of the only 10.9% of respondents
have achieved master level education or higher. The
following table shows that the mother of the majority of
respondents studied class 10 or below whereas the
mother of the only 4.9% of respondents have achieved
master level education or higher.
Table 2: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of
the Parent’s Educational Attainment
Father’s Educational
Attainment
Mother’s Educational
Attainment
Levels
Counts
% of Total
Counts
% of Total
Class 10 or below
251
56.0
290
64.7
Plus-Two Level
88
19.6
91
20.3
Bachelors Level
60
13.4
45
10.0
Masters Level or
Above
49
10.9
22
4.9
In a traditional Nepali family, the father is
considered the head and the provider of the family
while the mother takes responsibility of the domestic
needs and in-charge of the emotional growth and
values formation of the children. They both perform
different tasks and being remarked separately by the
children. Children see their mothers soft and calm,
while they regard their fathers as strong and the most
eminent figure in the family.
Students’ Performance in Mathematics according to
the Father’s Academic Attainment
The following table reveals that the higher the academic
attainments of the father better the performance in
mathematics of children.
Table 3: Performance of the Students in terms of
Father’s Education
Students’
Performanc
e in
Mathemati
cs
Father’s Education
Total
Class
10 or
below
Class
12
Bachel
or
Level
Maste
rs or
above
Obtaine
d less
than 60
marks
52.2%
35.6%
16.9%
12.8%
40.0%
Obtaine
d 61 to
70
marks
23.3%
24.1%
15.3%
17.0%
21.7%
Obtaine
d 71 to
80
marks
11.6%
19.5%
20.3%
10.6%
14.2%
Obtaine
d 81 to
90
marks
7.2%
8.0%
15.3%
14.9%
9.5%
262 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
Obtaine
d more
than 90
marks
5.6%
12.6%
32.2%
44.7%
14.7%
Total
100.0
%
100.0
%
100.0%
100.0
%
100.0
%
Students’ Performance in Mathematics as per the
Mother’s Academic Attainment
The following table reveals that the higher the academic
attainments of mother better the performance in
mathematics of children.
Table 4:Performance of the Students in terms of
Mother’s Education
Students’
Performance in
Mathematics
Mother’s Education
Total
Class
10 or
belo
w
Class
12
Bachel
or
Level
Maste
rs or
above
Obtained less
than 60 marks
47.9
%
28.
1%
22.7%
13.6%
39.7
%
Obtained 61 to 70
marks
21.5
%
24.
7%
18.2%
18.2%
21.7
%
Obtained 71 to 80
marks
14.6
%
16.
9%
9.1%
9.1%
14.2
%
Obtained 81 to 90
marks
8.7%
9.0
%
13.6%
13.6%
9.5%
Obtained more
than 90 marks
7.3%
21.
3%
36.4%
45.5%
14.9
%
Total
100.0
%
100
.0%
100.0
%
100.0
%
100.0
%
Students’ Performance in Mathematics according to
the Monthly Family Income
The following table reveals that the higher the monthly
income of the family better the performance in
mathematics of children.
Table 5: Performance of the Students in terms of
Monthly Family Income
Students’
Performance in
Mathematics
Monthly Family Income
Tot
al
less
than
Rs.25,
000
Rs.25,0
00 -
Rs.49,9
99
Rs.50,0
00 –
Rs.99,9
99
Rs.1,00
,000 or
more
Obtained less
than 60 marks
58.8
%
34.5%
32.1%
23.1%
40.0
%
Obtained 61 to
70 marks
21.3
%
23.9%
17.9%
25.0%
21.7
%
Obtained 71 to
80 marks
10.3
%
17.6%
14.3%
15.4%
14.3
%
Obtained 81 to
90 marks
5.1%
9.2%
14.3%
11.5%
9.5
%
Obtained more
than 90 marks
4.4%
14.8%
21.4%
25.0%
14.5
%
Total
100.0
%
100.0
%
100.0%
100.0%
100.
0%
Correlation Analysis
It can be seen from the following table that all variables:
Study Habits in Mathematics (SHM), Self-confidence in
Mathematics (SCM),Current Math Teacher’s
Characteristics (CMTC), Teaching and Learning
Facilities (TLF), and Value of Mathematics Subject
(VMS) are positively correlated with Mathematics
Performance of Students (MPSAT).
Table 6: Correlation Matrix
MPSAT
SHM
SCM
VMS
CMTC
TLF
MPSAT
—
SHM
0.421
***
—
SCM
0.295
***
0.469
***
—
VMS
0.247
***
0.455
***
0.272
***
—
CMTC
0.186
***
0.298
***
0.195
***
0.196
***
—
TLF
0.175
***
0.190
***
0.224
***
0.150
**
0.407
***
—
The result reveals that all the variables
have positive and significant correlation with
performance satisfaction in mathematics subject. ‘Study
habits in mathematics’ is found to have the largest
correlation followed by self confidence in mathematics.
The lowest correlation has been found for the variable
teaching learning facilities. Moreover, the results depict
that student related factors have higher correlation
263 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
while school related factors have relatively lower
correlation with mathematics performance satisfaction.
5. MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS
It was assumed that the Mathematics Performance of
Students (MPSAT) depends upon the variables: Study
Habits in Mathematics (SHM), Self-confidence in
Mathematics (SCM),Current Math Teacher’s
Characteristics (CMTC), Teaching and Learning
Facilities (TLF), and Value of Mathematics Subject
(VMS). The output of the multiple regression model
reveals overall or joint significance of the model as the
F-statistics has been found to be significant in one
percent level of significance.
Table 7: Regression Model Fit Measures
Overall Model Test
Model
R
R²
F
df1
df2
P
1
0.449
0.202
22.2
5
438
< .001
The value of R-squared reveals that around 20
percent of the variation in the dependent variable
mathematics performance is explained by the
independent variables in the model. The remaining
variation is explained by factors not included in the
multiple regression model. The following table
presents the beta coefficients, standard errors,
t-statistics associated with each beta coefficients and the
p-values.
Table 8: Regression Model Coefficients-MPSAT
Predictor
Estimate
SE
t
P
Stand.
Estimate
Intercept
0.4087
0.3299
1.239
0.216
SHM
0.4279***
0.0704
6.079
0 .001
0.3217
SCM
0.1874**
0.0831
2.256
0.025
0.1099
CMTC
0.0377
0.0520
0.724
0.469
0.0347
TLF
0.0726
0.0457
1.591
0.112
0.0749
VMS
0.0720
0.0585
1.230
0.219
0.0589
Note: * p < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .001
The results of the study reveal that students
performance in mathematics subject is effected the most
by their study habits followed by self-confidence in
perceiving that they can do well in the subject. An
important finding is that the variables affecting
mathematics performance are student related factors. In
contrast, school related factors are found not having
significant effect in the mathematics performance of the
students. This result corroborates with the results of the
correlation analysis.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The results of the study reveal that the mathematics
performance of class 10 students in Kaski district is not
satisfactory, especially in community schools. The
study finds that there is disparity in mathematics
performance across community and institutional
schools. Students of community schools located in rural
municipalities are found to have relatively weak
performance in mathematics subject. It can be
concluded that the schools having well developed
physical resources which are resourcefully abundant in
arranging school based facilities were found to be
having better performance. In contrast to it, the
academic performance of the students were found
being negatively impacted in schools where
comfortable environment wasn’t facilitated for study to
the students.
In conclusion, learning aids which supports schools
in their teaching and parental factors that influences the
mental and physical well-being of the students are
integrative elements that influences the academic
performance and teaching-learning environment in the
schools may it be in any subject or discipline.
Additionally, performance in mathematics is found to
be influenced by parental income and education.
Therefore, considerations of parental income and
education while planning educational deliverables are
also important factors that affect not only mathematics
performance but almost it could be same across all the
subjects. It is found that although the students value
mathematics subject and perceive math teacher
favorably, their confidence in mathematics subject is
low. Student related factors like study habits and
self-confidence has been found to be important
determinants of performance in mathematics subject.
However, school related factors like teaching learning
264 International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology
facilities and teacher characteristics have been found
not to effect mathematics performance.
Suggestions for Future Researchers
Since this study only focuses on the family related
factor and the school related factors further researchers
can incorporate some household or home related
factors and analyze the extent of relationships with
academic performance. Besides, the study is only
limited to mathematics and is confined to a single
district, which can be further extended by future
researchers by including more geographic locations
and disciplines in order to broaden the study spectrum.
Conflict of interest statement
Authors declare that they do not have any conflict of
interest.
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