Parents’ Perception Regarding Children Education

Niaz Ahmed Bhutto1, Raheel Ahmed Narejo2, Falahuddin Butt3. Abdul Samad Shaikh4 and
Rinkal Virwani5

Abstract

Parental perception plays pivotal role in the life of children during and after the education. This
research was conducted to investigate, the parents’ perception about sending their children to get
education, through self administered questionnaire distributed among 100 parents in Sukkur
district. Results show that Parents perceive their children to get education in order to improve
economic well being, secondly Parents perceive their daughters to get education in order to
become a part of educated society, not for earning money, finally, parents perceive their children
to acquire academic related skills while getting education, so for career choice and
entrepreneurial skills are acquired at lower end. This research also expands understanding of
parent’s insights in terms of perception regarding their children education. Results will help in
understanding parents’ perception about their children education which ultimately influences
children career choice decisions and education.

Key Words: Parents Perception, Children Education, Career Choice and Entrepreneurial Skills.

INTRODUCTION

1
The author is Associate Professor in Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur.
For correspondence : niaz@iba-suk.edu.pk
2
The author is student of BBA-VII in Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur.
3
The author is Assistant Professor in Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur
4
The author is student of BBA-VII in Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur.
5
The author is student of BBA-VII in Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur.
 In today’s competitive world where everyone wants to be ahead of others by fair or foul
means. Parents have different expectations and perceptions about their children. Parents’
perception is formed by number of factors over the period of time. Those factors which shape
parent’s perceptions are demographic that is age, gender, income, occupation, education,
language, and psychographic that is attitudes, values, personality and interests. What majority of
parents perceive their children to get education is for economic gains and one’s own well being.
Those parents who have low income or meager sources of earning, they wish their children to get
education and earn much in order to improve standard of living.

It is harsh reality that very small numbers of parents wish their children to get education
for learning purpose. The common perception of parents about their children education is “more
you learn, more you earn” very few parents think of education as a source to bring change in
society and improve overall morale of society. In fact the real purpose of education is not only to
earn money but education scintillates and polishes the physical, mental and spiritual faculties of
mind. If education doesn’t polish these facilities, its purpose is unfulfilled. The purpose of
education is not to make people money making machine. This research is also aimed to uncover
the hidden insights and know parents point of view about their purpose of their education.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Parents’ perception plays vital role in children education in terms of performance and
career choice. Numerous factors shape parents perception regarding children education which
ultimately influences the children attitude towards education. Parents with different demographic
and psychographic characteristics have different expectations for the education of their children.
Plenty of researches have been done in this regard at national and international level but it is
matter of fact that very few focuses the insights of parents perception.

Haq (2001) describes that Attitudes and behaviors that children adopt toward work are
largely a result of parents' encouragement and influence. This then affects what children think,
say, and perceive about various careers. Most parents want their children to work for economic
gain.
 Parental involvement in their children's education and choice of career has gained
momentum recently and has been a concern of education policy makers. The education system is
an area where the relationship between the consumer (parents) and the producer (schools) tilts
the balance of power (Munn, 1998). The education system of a country needs to prepare young
people with skills and abilities that are considered necessary for increased labor productivity and
economic development (Blaug, 1987 & Colman et al 1994)

Haq (2001) expressed that Parents have different educational aspirations for their sons
and daughters. Nearly half of parents feel that a boy should receive an intermediate or higher
level of education (class 12 or more), whereas only one-third feels the same for girls. Eccles &
Davis (2005) describe that probably the most prominent and direct explanation of the parents’
education and their children’s academic achievement relies on the assumption that parents learn
something during schooling that influences the ways in which they interact with their children
about all learning activities at home. Kasari et al. (1999) examined the effects of age, and current
educational placement on parents’ perception toward inclusion for their child and found that
diagnosis did make a difference in parent attitudes towards inclusion.

Do & Mancillas (2001) Parents’ educational expectations of their children have a strong
impact on children’s academic achievement. Parental expectations of children’s academic
performance have been shown to positively correlate with children’s grades. Qadiri & Manhas
(2000), 43% parents thought that children get multiple benefits from early childhood education.
25% of parent’s emphasis on the need to develop pre literacy skills. According to them children
must first learn early literacy concepts as it could help them to face the later years with more
confidence and ease. Parents perceive that apart from learning all such foundational skills
children develop ability to communicate with others and also express their feelings and ideas
with each other.

Nancy et al (2001), Parents have greater confidence in boys to take decisions on

important life matters as compared to girls. Many parents feel that young people have the right to
make decisions; however, they are not sure about their capability to do so.Academic
achievement is additionally influenced by children’s perceptions of their parents’ educational
expectations of them. Children are usually aware whether adults have high or low expectations,
which influences academic achievement (Eggen et al, 2001).

An injection of investment in education, particularly in the expansion of technical and

vocational schooling, some of the parents want their children also got technical skills apart from
academic this would improve the productivity of the labor force, allow education to adapt to new
technologies more readily, accelerate personal development and thus boost the national
economy. (Athanasou et al, 2001).

Dempsey & Sandler (1997), describes the main reasons for parental, teacher and school
involvement, seeing this involvement as an important part of the school system that functions to
create positive outcomes for children of all ages. In particular, parental involvement is
considered the most important influence on a student's progression through education and related
development that has major outcomes for child learning.

For children education Institutional forces have also a significant effect on the future pathway
navigated through secondary school education. This includes the status of secondary education,
streaming methods and points of transition within the education system as well as the
development of the secondary school curriculum (Menon, 1998).

Harkness et al (1991) Children at preschool stage need to be encouraged to develop

positive attitude through child to nature and the child to child interaction education is to be
designed carefully to provide wholesome growth and development of children. Shabnam et al
(2003) find that Parents perceive Preschool education plays significant role as it helps children in
successful completion of primary education. It provides the foundation for all around
development and enables the child to understand various issues.

Graff & Davies (2008, September) Children’s use of Internet has some positive effects
such as access to information, communication, support to education and individual development.
Additionally, it is asserted that children’s Internet use also has some negative effects such as
exposure to violence and pornography. Yan et al (2002) Parent involvement is linked to
children’s total learning. The greater parent involvement in children’s learning positively affects
the school performance including higher academic achievement.

Parents believe Internet has negative effects on children in terms of content, individual,
psychological and physical aspects. According to the parents’ views, the most negative effect of
Internet use is found to be related to content aspect since the Internet allows easy access to
pornographic content (Watson, 2005). Most parents want their children to work for economic
gain. More than 75 percent reported that young girls should work to supplement their families'
incomes, and somewhat surprisingly, the proportion is higher in rural areas (Sathar, 2002)

DATA & METHODOLOGY

This research was conducted through self administered questionnaire distributed among 100
parents with varying age, gender, monthly income, profession, language, residential area
(urban/rural) and education in Sukkur district. In this research convenience sampling technique
was used. The questionnaire included scaling questions with different levels of
agreeableness/disagreeableness or neutral. Collected data was analyzed with the help of “SPSS”
and output presented in this report is in the form of Tables and Graphs.

The sample of the parents from Sukkur district might limit the findings to the other areas of
Pakistan. Even though we made an attempt to minimize the potential bias by focusing on the
wide range of demographic segments in the sample (see Table # 1), but these selected parents
might have unique and distinctive perspective on the issues.

Table #1. Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents
Frequenc Percentage Frequenc Percentage
y y
GENDER Monthly
HOUSEHOLD
INCOME (Pak Rs :)
Male 72 72 Minimum 6,000 4 4
Female 28 28 6,001 - 12,000 10 10
12,001 – 18,000 13 13
18,001 - 24000 20 20
AGE 24,001 – 30,000 22 22
25 – 35 18 18 30,001 – 36,000 8 8
36 - 45 23 23 36,001 – 42,000 6 6
46 - 55 50 50 42,001 – 48,000 1 1
Above 55 9 9 Above 48,000 16 16
Education Profession
Metric 5 5 Government Employee 44 44
Intermediate 6 6 Private Employee 25 25
Bachelor 40 40 Self Employee 25 25
Masters 38 38 Any other 6 6
Mphil 6 6
PhDs 5 5
Language Urban/rural
Sindhi 80 80 Rural 45 45
Urdu 13 13 Urban 55 55
Punjabi 4 4
Balochi 1 1
Any other 2 2

RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

All survey responses were recorded into SPSS according to participants’ coded numbers;
response frequencies and percentages were then obtained. To examine parents’ and children’s
educational expectations, the following questions were respectively used in the data analysis:
“why you want your child to get education?” “Why you want your daughters to get education?”
what skills you perceive your children got form education? And likewise the questions are given
in the questionnaire.
DEMOGRAPHICS

Gender

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid female 28 28.0 28.0 28.0
male 72 72.0 72.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

The mean of gender is 0.72, the median of gender is 1 and mode is also 1.

Age

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid 25 - 35 18 18.0 18.0 18.0
36 - 45 23 23.0 23.0 41.0
46 - 55 50 50.0 50.0 91.0
above 55 9 9.0 9.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0
The mean age of the respondents is 2.5 which is that most of the respondents are 40 years old on
average. The mode is 3 which shows that frequently occurring age of respondents is lying in
between 46 to 55 which is also shown in commutative percentage column in above table.

Education

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid matric 5 5.0 5.0 5.0
intermediate 6 6.0 6.0 11.0
bachelors 40 40.0 40.0 51.0
masters 38 38.0 38.0 89.0
mphil 6 6.0 6.0 95.0
PHD 5 5.0 5.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

The mean education of respondents is 3.49 which show that on average they are bachelors and
masters. Whereas median and mode is 3, which shows that most of respondents are bachelor.

Language

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid Sindhi 80 80.0 80.0 80.0
Urdu 13 13.0 13.0 93.0
Punjabi 4 4.0 4.0 97.0
Balochi 1 1.0 1.0 98.0
any other 2 2.0 2.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

The mean of the language of respondents is 1.32 which shows that on average they are Sindhi
and Urdu speaking, whereas median and mode is 1 which also tells that frequent respondents are
Sindhi.
Profession

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid govt: employee 44 44.0 44.0 44.0
private
25 25.0 25.0 69.0
employee
self employed 25 25.0 25.0 94.0
any other 6 6.0 6.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

The mean of the Profession of respondents are 1.93 which shows that on average they are govt:
employee and private employee, whereas median is 2 which depicts that more people are private
employees, and mode is 1 which represents frequent respondents are government employee.

Monthly income

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid minimum 6000 4 4.0 4.0 4.0
6000 - 12000 10 10.0 10.0 14.0
12000 - 18000 13 13.0 13.0 27.0
18000 - 24000 20 20.0 20.0 47.0
24000 - 30000 22 22.0 22.0 69.0
30000 - 36000
8 8.0 8.0 77.0

36000 - 42000 6 6.0 6.0 83.0

42000 - 48000 1 1.0 1.0 84.0
above 48000 16 16.0 16.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0
The mean of the Monthly income of respondents are 4.95 which shows that on average they are
in between 24,000 to 30,000, whereas median and mode is 5 which explains that more people
having monthly income in between 24,000 to 30,000.
Urban/Rural

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid rural 45 45.0 45.0 45.0
urban 55 55.0 55.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

The respondents are 45% belonging to rural areas and remaining 55% are from urban.

Graph#1
Research reveals that almost all parents wish their children to be a good human who may work
for the welfare of society and develop mental attitude towards practical life. In response to one
Question asked from respondents for sending their children abroad to earn money, 40% agreed
and strongly agreed while below 10% disagreed. Because of unstable market conditions and
benefit of exchange rate, parents wish their children to go abroad and earn handsome amount of
money.

30% of the parents strongly disagreed and 23% disagreed that their children should take part in
politics. Research also explores that parents do not expect and perceive their children to
manage their own family business. Most of the parents prefer their children to get high income
and status job rather than managing and expanding their own business.

Graph# 2
 When parents were asked their expectation and perception about their daughter’s education,
their response was somewhat different than they expect from their Sons.

15% of the parents wish their daughters to get high income job and financially support family
15% remained neutral whereas 30% disagreed and 25% strongly disagreed for daughters to get
a high income job. 90% of the parents remained neutral for their daughters to get education so
that they may be part of educated society and improve their awareness. Some of the parents also
agreed that because of good education daughters get married in good families.70% parents
strongly that educated mothers take care of their children in good way.

Graph#3
 It has been significantly noted that education develops soft and hard skills in
candidates. Almost 80 to 90% parents perceive that education develops basic reading and writing
skills in their children along with decision making ability based on acquired knowledge. It seems
from research that only 20% of the children make their own carrier choice decision as strongly
agreed by their parents, the rest of the children is highly influenced by their parent’s expectations
and desires in their career choice. Only 20% of the parents strongly agreed that children develop
entrepreneurial skills by getting education.

CONCLUSION

Education is important for development of any nation in long term. This is only way to survive in
today’s fast growing age. Providing education to children is responsibility of parents. This
responsibility greatly depends upon parents’ perception. Their perception shapes children
attitude towards education. This study investigates what parents think and expect from children
when they get education. Majority of parents expect that by getting education they would
increase standard of living. Most of parents were of opinion that education makes a good human
being and in the result society improves.50% parents agreed and strongly agreed that they expect
their children to go abroad and earn money. Parents do not wish their children to manage their
own family business but get a good job. Most of parents have job orientation perception
regarding education. In Sukkur area parents are still hesitant to send their daughters for higher
education. They do not expect their daughters to earn money and get high income job. Parents
perceive their daughters education to be conducive in running house affairs and growing children
with care some of parents viewed their daughters education to be good for their marriage in good
families. 80% to 90% parents perceive education to be helpful in making effective decisions.
Whereas career choice decisions are not made by children but parents have greater influence on
it as reported by parents.45% parents also responded that youngsters do not learn entrepreneurial
skills while getting education till they come practically in business and put their hands into it.

RECOMMENDATIONS

After going through research findings, we recommend that;

1. Parents must rectify their perception about the purpose of their children education.
Parents should expect their children to learn more and more because if they go for
excellence, success will follow them.
2. Majority of parents are not in favor of politics for their children which our young blood
can change the lot of nation. So if young blood do not go into politics, decision, laws and
policy making would be ineffective.

3. 70% of parents perceive that their children cannot make right career choice decision. But
what is needed is no interference of parents in career decision. Let children decide at their
own as per their interests, inclination and capabilities.

4. Parents should encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship in their children which they
normally discourage. Getting job should never be purpose of education but becoming
good human, self reliant and productive for society should be priority.

5. Parents should not limit their daughters education to secondary level rather allow them to
get higher education and play their role in society.
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