European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 16, Number 3 (2010)

Parental Involvement in Children’s Education: Does Parents’

Education Level Really Matters?

Suresh Kumar N Vellymalay

School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia
E-mail: suresh@usm.my

Abstract
The study investigates the relationship between parents’ education level and parental
involvement in their children’s education among National Medium Tamil Schools in
Malaysia. Parental involvement in this study focuses on the involvement strategies
implemented by the parents’ in their children’s education at home and at school. Findings
of the study suggest that there are no significant differences between parents’ education
level and most of the parents’ involvement strategies in their children’s education. The
ethnic similarity among the parents’ that tightens the bondage of the culture within the
school environment and the importance given to education are seemed to be the main
reason for their involvement.

Introduction
Parental involvement in children’s education is seemed to be one of the most important on going
discussion in the field of education. In the journey of life, a child has the same needs and rights
(Gordon and Brown, 1989). To ensure this, parent’s role and responsibility are extremely important to
fulfill the development of a child. To be more specific, a child benefits when parents show a great
involvement in his or her education; and when the parents have every confidence in helping their child
to be successful in school (Eliason and Jenkins, 2003).
In recent years, the development in the field of sociology of education especially has
heightened the need for parental involvement. Since parental involvement plays an important role to
cognitive and social development of a child (Weis, et al., 2006), the involvement is much appreciated
in enhancing their child’s education excellence at school (Chrispeels and Rivero, 2001). Basically,
children’s behavior are molded by their parents for a successful life (Gestwicki, 1987) and their
guidance develops better attitude, behavior, personality and the potential in the children (Manja Mohd
Ludin, 1990). In short, beside the cognitive and social development, children also develop their skills
along the school experiences (Baker and Stevenson, 1986). However, many questions have been raised
about the quality and the quantity of parental involvement in their children’s education.
The issue of parental involvement in children’s education is grown an importance in light of
recent decades. More attention is given on the decline of the educational achievement among students
(Demie, et al., 2002). Bourdieu (1977) has stated that ‘a strong relationship between culture practice
and level of education depends on the education system which can be effective only is an individual is
exposed to the world through early family upbringing’. Hence, it is important to note here that the
strength in early family upbringing of an individual is seemed to have an important influence of
parent’s education level. However, in this paper, I argue that parent’s education level does not always
stand as a strong mediating factor for parental involvement in their children’s education in all cases.
This research critically traces the parents’ education level and their involvement in children’s
education, in the district of Kerian, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. The main questions addressed in
this paper are:

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i. What is the education level of the parents studied in the district of Kerian, Perak Darul
Ridzuan?
ii. What are the strategies of involvement implemented by the parents in their children’s
education?
iii. What is the relationship between parent’s education level and their involvement in children’s
education?

Literature Review
Many researches to date on parental involvement in children’s education are tended to focus on either
social class or socioeconomic status of the parents. For example, Lareau (1987) in one of her studies
emphasize the influence of social class on parental involvement in their children’s education. Her study
finds that lack of skills; occupation status, time and income among the working class are the
constraints to their involvement towards their children’s education. Beside these constraints, the
working class parents also are not exposed to the school curriculum (Lareau, 1987). Looking into the
socialization of the working class, they lack experiences in the relationship with professionals (Reay,
1999) and they also find some difficulties to communicate with their children’s school teachers.
The findings of Sewell and Hauser (1980) and Ramsay et al., (1992) are also significant to the
study done by Lareau (1987) and Reay (1999). Sewell and Hauser’s (1980) study found that most of
the working class students have low cognitive skills. These students failed to have high aspirations in
education which they believe caused by the absence of motivation from their parents and teachers due
to poor financial resources. Ramsay et al. (1992) in their study revealed that the working class parents
could not participate in school activities due to various problems that have been encountered. It
includes the need for child care, the feelings of inferiority and the peception that their involvement will
not be appreciated by the school.
Besides the emphasis given on social class, studies are also carried out to see the impact of
socioeconomic status towards parent’s involvement in their children’s education. Katsilis and
Rubinson’s (1990) study proved that socioeconomic status affects the education success among
children. Lueptow (1975) found that the students with high achievement in education come from
urban, educated, high income and a good occupation status. Moreover, Ho Sui-Chu and Willms (1996)
proved that the socioeconomic status of parents has a significant and positive ship on the
communication pattern between parents and children, parents and school, and various type of parental
involvement in children’s education.
While many researchers emphasized on social class and socioeconomic status of the parents’ as
the indicator to parental involvement, a few researchers have been able to draw on research specifically
into parent’ education level and the involvement in their children’s education. However, all their
findings were significant enough to support the association between parents’ education and their
involvement. These studies justified that parent’s level of education has a great influence on the
involvement of parents in their children’s education. For example, Baker and Stevenson’s study (1986)
found that well educated mothers have higher knowledge of their children’s schooling, more contact
and communication with the school, aware of their children’s achievement, monitor their children’s
progress and lead them to pursue higher education. This shows that parents’ with more education are
more concern about their children’s schooling. They give high importance on the education of their
children through various practice of involvement.
Reay’s study (2004) also found that most middle class mothers have a good educational
background and it is invested in their children’s educational success in the form of self-confidence and
participation. A high level of education among the parents’ also allows the children to have more
opportunity to develop motivation and educational aspirations to involve in various educational
activities (Tudge, et al., 2006; Sewell and Hauser, 1980). Moreover, Poston and Falbo’s study (1990)
also supports the idea that educated parents tend to communicate and interact with their children based

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on their intellectual development which grows the children towards a positive learning and a successful
achievement.
An addition to the studies discussed above, Lockheed, et al. (1989) proved that a child whose
father is a professional and mother who is highly educated had high scores in Mathematics. Hence, it
can be said here that parent’s education level has a high impact factor on their involvement in
children’s education. This parental involvement increases the academic achievement of the child. In
another study, Kaplan, et al., (2001) proves that parent’s who have low level of education and a high
negative self-feeling may not have high expectations on children in education achievement. The more
the level of parent’s education, the higher the education aspirations hold by the parents towards the
academic achievement of their children (Lockheed, et al., 1989).

Methodology
Sample was drawn from the National Medium Tamil Schools in Kerian district located in the state of
Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. Approximately 150 students from a total of 588 Indian students
studying in National Medium Tamil Schools were randomly chosen according to the stratified random
sampling. They were in Year Three, Four and Five that is 50 students from each Year.
Students in Year One and Two were not selected for this study as this group is at an early stage
of schooling and too early to evaluate the parental involvement in their children’s education. Year Six
students also were not chosen because the rules set by the Ministry of Education against any study on
students who sits for the Year Six examination (UPSR). Overall, the students selected for this study
were originally Indian by race which includes Indians, Indian Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.
Based on these 150 students, one parent for each student was selected (according to the
student’s view about the individual who spend more time to involve in their education) to be the
sample for this study. About 79.3% were female (n = 119) and 20.7% were male (n = 31). This
selection not only could provide a comprehensive picture about Indian parents’ involvement in their
children’s education among National Medium Tamil School students in the district of Kerian, Perak
Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. It also expected to give an explanation about the influence of parents’
education level on their involvement in children’s education among these National Medium Tamil
Schools students in the district of Kerian in the state of Perak Darul Ridzuan and Malaysia in general.
Structured interviews were conducted on the samples. Questionnaire was used by the researcher
to obtain quantitative data from these samples. The questionnaire includes questions related to
socioeconomic background of the respondents such as their education level, occupation, income and
family income; besides their involvement strategies implemented in their children’s education.
Not using this large array of information, the analysis for this paper is only focused on the
parents’ education level and the strategies of involvement that were implemented in their children’s
education. In accordance with that, parents’ education level in the questionnaire were classified into
seven categories, namely (1) No formal education (2) Completed primary (3) Did not complete
secondary (4) Completed secondary (5) Certificate/Diploma (6) First Degree, and (7) Masters/PhD.
Parents’ behavior in helping their children in education is seen as the ability of the parents to be
involved in a variety of strategies to ensure the educational success of their children (Walker, et al.,
2005). Table 1 provides the items related to strategies implemented by the parents’ in their children’s
education as in the questionnaire. For each question, the respondents were asked to state whether they
are ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘neither agree nor disagree’, ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ for each
strategies on parents’ involvement in their children’s education.

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Table 1: Details on Variables Used in the Analysis

Variables Details
Discussion on future planning Effort taken by the parent to discuss with his/her children
regarding the future.
Discussion on school activities Effort taken by the parent to discuss the activities done by
his/her children at school.
Identifying learning pattern Effort taken by the parent to identify the learning patterns
applied by his/her children at school.
Identifying problems on academic at school Effort taken by the parent to identify problems faced by
his/her children at school in academic.
Identifying problems on academic at home Effort taken by the parent to identify problems faced by
his/her children at home in academic.
Identifying homework Effort taken by the parent to help his/her children with the
homework given by the school.
Assisting homework Effort taken by the parent to identify the homework given by
the school.
Guiding on examination Effort taken by the parent to guide his/her children on
preparation for school examination.
Monitoring academic performance at school Effort taken by the parent to monitor his/her children’s
academic performance at school from time to time.
Motivation Effort taken by the parent to motivate his/her children to
study hard.
Time limitation Effort taken by the parent to provide time limitation to his/her
children for learning, watching television and personal
activities.
Getting reading materials Effort taken by the parent to provide additional reading
materials (etc newspaper and magazines) for his/her children.
Tuition Effort taken by the parent to provide tuition for his/her
children.
Monitoring activities Effort taken by the parent to monitor his/her children’s
activities in other places (etc shopping centers, playground
etc) besides home and school.

The structured interview with the respondents was held at their children’s school. The interview
was conducted by researcher himself. Each structured interview using questionnaire took
approximately 30 minutes. Each respondent who engaged in structured interviews had been informed
that all the information provided by respondents during the interview sessions will be kept confidential.
All the information gathered was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.

Results
Table 2 presents the education level of the parents’ in this study. The analysis shows that 98.0%
parents’ had only attended secondary education and below. In detail, almost 32.0% parents’ had
completed secondary education followed by 26.7% parents’ who managed to go to secondary level but
did not complete their secondary education. Meanwhile, about 27.3% parents’ had only completed
primary education and 12.0% parents’ had never been to school. Only 2.0% of the parents’ in this
study had completed their tertiary education. As can be seen from the table below, about 98.0% of the
parents’ have no professional qualification. It is apparent from this table that 12.0% of the parents’
were dropouts. More over, even though 32.0% parents’ had been completed secondary education, there
is no justification that they had passed their examination.

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Table 2: Parents’ Education Level

Education Level Frequency Percentage

No formal education 18 12.0
Completed primary 41 27.3
Did not complete secondary 40 26.7
Completed secondary 48 32.0
Cert/Diploma 2 1.3
First Degree 1 0.7
Total 150 100.0
n = 150

One of the major goals is to determine the strategies used by the parents’ to involve in their
children’s education. Table 3 presents the results obtained from the preliminary analysis on the
strategies used by the parents’ to involve in their children’s education. The data indicate that parents’
are actively involved and used many strategies of involvement in their children’s education.
As shown at Table 3, there are six strategies showing the mean value 4.0 and above. With the
highest mean value of 4.21, parents’ show high involvement in motivating their children to achieve
academic success. With mean value of 4.12, parents’ show high involvement in discussing about the
activities done by their children’s back at school. Meanwhile, with the mean value of 4.09 each,
parents’ show high involvement in identifying the problems faced by their children in academic at
home and, in monitoring their children’s academic performance at school from time to time. Moreover,
with mean value of 4.08 and 4.04 respectively, parents show high involvement in discussing their
children’s future plans with them and, in monitoring their children’s activities besides the regular
activities at home and at school. Monitoring their children’s activities in this case includes various
places as shopping complexes, playground and friend’s home.

Table 3: Strategies of Parental Involvement in Children’s Education

Strategy Strongly Disagree Disagree / Agree Strongly Mean Sd.

Disagree (%) (%) Agree (%) (%) Agree (%)
Discussion on future 1.3 7.3 14.0 36.7 40.7 4.08 0.98
planning
Discussion on school
activities 2.0 6.7 13.3 33.3 44.7 4.12 1.01
Identifying learning
pattern 2.7 12.7 20.7 30.7 33.3 3.79 1.12
Identifying problems on
academic at school 1.3 10.0 20.3 34.0 34.7 3.91 1.03
Identifying problems on
academic at home 2.0 6.7 16.0 31.3 44.0 4.09 1.02
Assisting homework 4.7 16.7 14.0 32.7 32.0 3.71 1.21
Identifying homework 4.7 12.0 25.3 28.7 29.3 3.66 1.16
Guiding on examination 3.3 7.3 18.0 37.3 34.0 3.91 1.06
Monitoring academic
performance at school 2.0 5.3 15.3 36.7 40.7 4.09 0.98
Motivation 3.3 4.0 7.3 39.3 46.0 4.21 0.98
Time limitation 5.3 10.7 12.7 34.0 37.3 3.87 1.18
Getting reading materials 4.7 22.0 17.3 23.3 32.7 3.57 1.28
Tuition 16.7 17.3 11.3 20.7 34.0 3.38 1.51
Monitoring activities 2.0 11.3 14.7 24.7 47.3 4.04 1.121
n = 150

Another eight strategies shows the mean value below 4.00. With the mean value of 3.91 each,
parents’ show high involvement in identifying the problems faced by their children in school on
academic and, in guiding them on their preparation towards school examination. With mean value of
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3.87, parents’ show high involvement in providing time limitation to their children for learning
activities, watching television and other personal activities. Meanwhile, with mean value of 3.79 and
3.71 respectively, parents show high involvement in identifying the learning pattern of their children at
school through the teachers at school and, in assisting their children with homework given by the
school. In addition, with the mean value of 3.66 and 3.57, parents’ show high involvement in
identifying their children’s homework given by the school and, in providing additional reading
materials such as newspapers and magazines for their children to upgrade their academic performance.
Moreover, with the mean value of 3.38, parents’ show high involvement in providing their children
with tuition classes.
Scrutinizing the scale into dichotomy variables by coding ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ as ‘high
parental involvement’, the others as ‘low parental involvement’; the analysis shows that over 80.0% of
the parents’ highly involve only in one strategy. They show a high parental involvement in motivating
their children to achieve academic success.
There are seven other strategies of involvement which consists 70.0%-80.0% of high parental
involvement in each strategy. The parents’ who fall in this category show high involvement in
discussing their children’s future plans with them, identify problems faced by their children in
academic at home and, in providing time limitation to their children for learning activities, watching
television and other personal activities. They also have a strong courage to discuss the activities done
by their children’s at school, guide them on their preparation towards school examination and monitor
their children’s academic performance at school from time to time. They also show high involvement
in monitoring their children’s behavior on other activities besides the regular activities at home and at
school.
The analysis also shows that about 60.0%-70.0% parents’ highly involve in three strategies.
The parents’ are highly involved in identifying the problems faced by their children in school on
academic, in identifying the learning pattern of their children at school and, in assisting their children’s
homework to completion.
There are also three other strategies of involvement which consists 50.0%-60.0% of high
parental involvement in each strategy. The parents’ are highly involved in identifying their children’s
homework given by the school and providing additional reading materials for their children to upgrade
their academic performance. They also provide their children with tuition classes as a supplement to
the knowledge grasped at school.
To be more specific, there are three forms of involvement seen among the parents in helping
their children’s education: first, parent’s involvement at home; second, parents’ involvement at school;
and third, parent’s involvement with children’s activities outside home and outside school.

Parent’s Involvement at Home

As can be seen from Table 3, 85.3% of the parents’ show high involvement in motivating their children
to achieve academic success. About 77.4% parents’ often discuss with their children about their future.
In addition, 75.3% of parents’ also showed high involvement in identifying problems faced by children
academic at home. A total of 78.0% of parents’ also discuss about their children’s activities in school
in order to get an overview about things done by their children in schools. They gather information
from their children about the activities organized by schools.
In addition, 71.3% parents’ provide time limitation to their children for learning activities,
watching television and other personal activities. About 58.0% of parents’ identify their children’s
homework given by the school. About, 64.7% parents’ also assist their children with school homework
if the child finds difficulty to complete it. It helps the child to complete all their homework assigned by
the school. Meanwhile, 71.3% parents’ showed high involvement in guiding their children on their
preparation towards school examination. A total of 56.0% parents’ often provide additional reading
materials (such as news papers and magazines) to allow children to get more information that may help
them in their learning and to improve their academic excellence. Finally, 54.7% of parents’ provide
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tuition for their children to improve their educational achievement. Most of the parents’ prefer classes
that being conducted at teacher’s home and operated by the trained teachers.

Parent’s Involvement at School

From the Table 3 above, about 68.7% parents’ identify the problems faced by their children back in
school, strictly in education. Many parents’ meet their children’s class teachers regularly. They get the
feedback from teachers and discuss the problems faced by their children in education. A total of 77.4%
parents’ monitor their children’s academic performance at school from time to time based on their
children’s examination achievement. In addition, 64.0% parents’ also identify the learning pattern of
their children at school through the communication with the teachers.

Parent’s Involvement outside Home and Outside School

About 72.0% parents’ do monitor their children’s behavior on other activities besides the regular
activities at home and at school. Monitoring their activities is intended to ensure the discipline of the
children outside home and outside school. This also done to avoid them involving in any social
problems.
Based on the parents’ involvement strategies in their children’s education as described above, it
is very clear that more than 50.0% of the parents’ hold a great importance on education of their
children. The importance of education has led these parents’ to involve in various strategies along their
children’s education pattern especially at home and at school. The higher the importance is placed by
the parents’ for their children’s education, the greater their involvement and more higher the
expectations are placed on educational achievement of their children.
Turning now to the evidence on correlation between parents’ education and among the fourteen
strategies of parental involvement, most of the observed relationship is not significant. The strength of
the relationship however, depends on the strategies emphasized by the parents. Table 4 provides the
correlations between parents’ education and the fourteen strategies of parental involvement.
Interestingly, there is no significant differences were found between parents’ education and most of the
parental involvement strategies. Over all, parents’ education did not affect the parental involvement
strategies in this measure.
As shown in Table 4, the bivariate relationship between parents’ education and the strategies in
Table 4 did not show any strong relationship with any of the fourteen strategies implemented. There
are only four strategies implemented are significant at the p = 0.05 level. Hence, there is some evidence
that parents’ with more education, more involved in their children’s education. However, on average,
parents’ education was shown to have weak association although the result is significant at the p = 0.05
level. As can be seen from the table above, parents’ with more education are more involved identifying
problems on academic at home (r = 0.20, p < 0.05), assisting homework (r = 0.18, p < 0.05),
identifying homework (r = 0.17, p < 0.05) and monitoring academic performance at school (r = 0.18, p
< 0.05).

Table 4: Correlation between Parents’ Education Level and Strategies of Parental Involvement

Strategy Correlation Coefficient (r)

Parents’ education 1.00
Discussion on future planning 0.06
Discussion on school activities 0.12
Identifying learning pattern 0.07
Identifying problems on academic at school 0.06
Identifying problems on academic at home 0.20*
Assisting homework 0.18*
Identifying homework 0.17*
Guiding on examination 0.11*

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Monitoring academic performance at school 0.18*
Motivation 0.12
Time limitation 0.07
Getting reading materials 0.05
Tuition 0.08
Monitoring activities 0.02
n = 150
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

No significant differences were found between parents’ education and the other implemented
strategies of involvement. The study finds extremely little evidence that the parents’ with more
education have high involvement in these strategies. The results show that the parents’ with more
education are not more likely as parents with less education, in discussing some future plans together
with their children (r = 0.06) and talks about the activities engage by their children’s in school (r =
0.12). They are also not more likely to have involvement in identifying the learning pattern of their
children (r = 0.07) and the problems faced by them on academic (r = 0.06) at school. The results are
also similar for the parents’ from both categories in guiding their children on their preparation towards
school examination (r = 0.11) and motivate them to achieve academic success (r = 0.12). All the results
above show a very weak relationship between parents’ education and the involvement strategies
implemented by the parents’ in their children’s education.
The result also shows a positive and very weak relationship between parents’ education and
their time limitation for their children on home activities (r = 0.07). A very weak correlation is also
seen between parents’ education and their involvement in providing tuition classes for their children (r
= 0.08), getting them additional reading materials (r = 0.05) and, in monitoring their children’s
activities off-home and off-school besides the regular activities at home and at school (r = 0.02).

Discussion and Conclusion

A prevailing perception among most researchers in the field of education is that the more the education
level of the parents’, the more the parental involvement would be. The parents’ with more education
intend to involve in various strategies at home and at school that foster academic excellence. In
accordance to the statement above, a strong relationship between parents’ education and their
involvement in children’s education has been reported in the literature review. The literature review
highlights that parents’ with higher level of education shows high involvement in their children’s
education.
In contrast to the above discussion, this study did not find a strong relationship between
parents’ education and their involvement in any single strategy implemented by the parents’ in their
children’s education. It is somewhat interesting to note that in ten out of fourteen cases of this study are
not significant. A significant positive relationship is seen only in four strategies that are in identifying
their children’s problems on academic at home, identifying their homework given by the school,
assisting their homework to completion and monitoring their academic performance at school from
time to time. However, it only shows a weak relationship.
The findings of the current study did not support any of the previous research discussed in the
literature review. It is not consistent with those of Baker and Stevenson (1986), who found well
educated mothers have higher knowledge of their children’s schooling, more contact with the school,
aware of their children’s achievement and lead them to pursue higher education. The findings also did
not support the previous research of Reay (2004) that suggested most middle class mothers have a
good educational background and it is invested in their children’s educational success in the form of
self-confidence and participation.
The findings also did not corroborates the ideas of Tudge, et al., 2006; Sewell and Hauser, 1980
that a high level of education also allows the children to have more opportunity to develop motivation
and educational aspirations to involve in various educational activities. The findings in this study also
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is not in agreement with Poston and Falbo’s (1990) findings that supports the idea that educated
parents tend to communicate and interact with their children to enhance the children to a positive
learning and educational achievement. The present findings is not consistent with Lockheed, et al.,
(1989) studies that is the more the standard of parent’s education, the higher the education aspirations
hold by the parents towards the academic achievement of their children. In short, the study did not
detect any reliable evidence of relationship between parents’ education and the involvement strategies
implemented by the parents’ in their children’s education.
There are two possible explanations for these results. A possible explanation for this might be
that the culture within Tamil school environment which tightens by ethnic similarity is being strength
for parental involvement in their children’s education. Most of the Tamil schools are located mainly in
plantations and near to the students’ home. The social locations of Tamil schools make its way for the
parents to have contact with the school. Warm relationship based on ethnic similarity gives an
opportunity for the schools to motivate and influence the parents on the importance of parental
involvement and the strategies of involvement in their children’s education. Moreover, the relationship
based on ethnic similarity enables the parents’ to communicate with the headmasters and teachers in
their mother tongue. It also exposes the parents’ to the activities being held in the school enabling them
to involve in those activities without the feelings of inferiority. In this case, the school plays an
important role in molding the attitude and behavior of the parents’ by supplying them the knowledge
and skill for higher parental involvement in their children’s education. It is clear that the strength of
relationship between school and the parents’ are able to drown the factor of parents’ education level in
influencing parental involvement in children’s education.
Another possible explanation for this might be that the parents’ places a high importance for
their children’s education since most of them are not highly educated. Most of the parents’ in this study
do not have a high education. Low level of education among parents’ should not be the reason for the
parents’ to deny their responsibility against their children’s education. They could have high aspiration
for their children, hoping that their children will never experience the hardship of life in later years.
Hence, the parents could identify the potential in themselves and being very rational in adopting the
strategies on what they should do to support the education of their children.
As a conclusion, the present study was designed to determine the relationship of parents’
education level and the parents’ involvement in their children’s education. Findings suggest that in
general the parents’ do not have a very high education. Most of them (98.0%) only attended secondary
education and below. The second major finding has shown that over 50.0% parents’ in study highly
involved in their children’s education in various strategies. Finally, correlation analysis surprisingly
revealed that most of the observed difference between parents’ education level and the parents’
involvement in their children’s education was not significant. The evidence from this study suggests
that parents’ education level did not play an important role in influencing parental involvement among
National Medium Tamil School students in Malaysia.
The findings of this study have an important implication for future practice. Regardless the
parents’ education level, most of the parents seemed to have invested their educational background in
their children’s educational in the form of participation. However, the quality and the quantity of
knowledge and skill of the parent’s especially those who are from the low level of education are remain
uncertain. It is clear in this study that the warm relationship based on ethnic similarity gives an
opportunity for the schools to inspire the parents on the importance of parental involvement and the
strategies in their children’s education. Thus, the schools should provide some programs or trainings
for the parents’ on quality based parental involvement in education of their children.
The current findings add substantially to our understanding of the importance of Tamil school
culture and the environment that influence and encourages the parental involvement to enhance
children’s academic excellence. The current findings also add to a growing body of literature in
parental involvement in the education of their children. The present study makes several noteworthy

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contributions to the parents’, regardless their education level, to uphold their aspiration that translates
into various practices in order to enhance involvement qualities in their children’s education.
However, the findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First, these data
apply only to parents’ from the Indian ethnic. The Malays and Chinese were not considered. Secondly,
the study only focused on National Medium Tamil Schools. In fact, the National Schools and National
Medium Chinese Schools were not included. Thirdly, the study was undertaken in Kerian District in
the state of Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. There are also other states and many other districts in each
state which is not considered. Finally, any secondary schools in the districts or states were not covered
in this study. In short, the findings of this study suggest the need for many further lines of research.
Further investigation and experimentation into above limitations is strongly recommended.

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