Abstract:
This study was carried out in secondary school students in Thika, Kiambu County to determine
influence of parents’ socio economic status to student academic achievement. This study had
the following objectives: To investigate parents level of education and its influence on students'
academic achievement, to find out how parents occupation level influence students’ academic
achievement and to establish the relationship between parents socioeconomic and its influence
on student academic achievement. This study used simple random test method. The target
population was 1000 of secondary school students in Thika. A sample size of 100 students
drawn from the target population was used. The researchers used questionnaires to collect data
from the respondents. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and afterwards it was
presented through pie chart, graphs and frequency and percentage tables. The study findings
led to the conclusion that parents/guardians education level had influence on student academic
achievement as those students with parents who had educational level exceeding secondary
were the only ones with grade A. However, these parents also produced average students (B
and C) despite their high level of education. Parents with lower level of education and no formal
education were the ones who produced children with high number of grade C. The findings
also concluded that occupational level of parents/guardians had no influence in academic
achievement as those parents with income exceeding 60000 produced a student with grade C.
Through this study, I recommend parents to provide tranquility in their home as it also
influence students academic achievement.