Impact of Family Income Level on Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Kicukiro District of Rwanda. A case Study of Masaka Sector (2022-2023)

ABSTRACT :The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of selected family income levelonacademic performance of students in public secondary schools in Masaka sector, Kicukiro district,Rwanda.Three secondary schools were assessed namely: Group Scolaire Masaka I, Group Scolaire Masaka II,and Group ScolaireRusheshe. The study sought to determinethe influence of parents‟ income, educationalleveland academic support facilities in the homes on students‟ academic performance. A descriptive surveydesign was used to execute the study.Simple random sampling technique was used to select respondents from 3public secondary schools, to give a sample size of 213 students and 3 head teachers, 21 class teachers. Datawere collected through three sets of questionnaires for parents, students, teachers andhead teachers.Quantitativedata were analyzed using descriptive using SPSS and correlation was used to establish the relationship betweenthe variables of the study. The findings of thisstudy were that: Parental income is strongly associated withacademic performance; 66.7% (142/213) of parents had income of less than 100,000 Rwfand 76% (108/142) oftheir students scored below 60 marks (Grade F, S, E, D). Those parents with higher income (above100,000Rwf), the performance of their children was generally higher than those who belonged to lower incomefamilies. It was also observed that 55.4% of parents had attained primary level of education and 84.7%(100/118) of their children scored less than 60 marks while students from those parents with higher level ofeducation scored higher grades. Therefore, level of parent‟s education impacted on the studentacademicperformance. 100% of students who had no supporting home materials scored lower grades(F, S,E).None of those who had enough facilitiesscored less than 50 marks: 97%(95/98). It observed that providedhome facilities positively also impacted on the student academic performance.The studytherefore concluded thatparental income, parental education, and availability of home facilities were important antecedents of students„academic performanceto a great extent.In order to improve students‟ academic performance, it wasrecommended that the governmentneeds to boost the economic status of households through investing much onincome generating activities and the country needs to put in place appropriate systems to enhance parentaleducation like adults‟ education so the parents could be equipped with basic formal education.

KEY CONCEPTS:Family income, level of education, home facilities andacademic performance.