The Influence Of Home Environment On Learning Achievements Among Students’ In Public Day Secondary Schools In Mbulu Town Council-Tanzania

ABSTRACT

The study intended to investigate the influence of home environment on students’ learning achievements from selected day public secondary schools in Mbulu Town council. The study explored family characteristics on students learning achievements, home geographical location on students learning achievements and home learning facilities on student learning achievements. This study was guided by the Sociocultural Theory of learning, developed by Vygotsky in 1978. The study further employed cross-sectional survey design. The study employed mixed approach whereas qualitative approach dominates though quantitative data were used to complement the findings. Data were collected from 143 participants through interviews, observation, questionnaires and FGD. These participants were sampled through purposive and stratified sampling techniques. In this sample, 70 participants were students, 60 were parents, 10 teachers and 3 were Mbulu Town Council Educational Officers. The findings obtained in the field were analysed quantitatively through Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 25 and presented on tables through frequencies and percentages. On the other hand, qualitative data were analysed and presented based on themes emerged. The findings of this study revealed among other things that, missing breakfast and lunch at home, failure of parents to make follow up on students’ academic progress, inability of family to provide basic needs and alcohol use among family members were the family characteristics that obstruct students’ learning. In turn, these family characteristics had impact on students’ learning achievement in public day secondary schools in MTC. Furthermore, the study established that long distance from home to school, presence of rivers and heavy forests, recreational centres and absence of infrastructure were home geographical characteristics, which affected students’ learning in MTC. Moreover, the findings of the study unveiled that inadequacy of home learning facilities such as learning materials, electricity, furniture and study room influence students’ learning achievement adversely. The implication of the study findings is that students with positive and stimulating home environment were likely to achieve better in their learning achievement than those who come from the poor home environment.