Correlates of Academic Performance in Pupils Under a Feeding Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Parents' schooling experiences and expectations for the family can strongly influence their decision on the education of their children. While the intellectual stimulation from a primary grade teacher could offer the first formal academic experience to a child, the home environment exerts the strongest influence on a child's academic performance. School feeding (SF) has long been a welfare scheme adopted in the Philippines but there are very limited empirical studies that assessed its effectiveness.

METHODS

From a set of socioeconomic factors and anthropometric measures, the present study determined which of them are significantly associated with the composite final grade of pupils. All recipients (N=80 malnourished primary schoolchildren were served lunch) of the "Busog-Lusog-Talino" School Feeding Program in San Carlos Elementary School, Tabaco City for two school years were participants to the study. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that parents' education and pupils' concurrent body mass index (BMI) are positive explanatory factors correlated with the final grade.

RESULTS

Upon the start of the feeding, all pupils had either wasted (W, 86.25%) or severely wasted (SW, 13.75%) nutritional status with a mean BMI of 12.4. However, at midline, there were already 56.25% of pupils with normal nutritional status. This significantly increased to 95% at the endline measurement. The proportion of wasting among the children was also significantly reduced to about 44% at midline while only four pupils were with wasted status and the rest had normal BMI at endline. BMI of the pupils increased significantly from baseline to midline than to endline indicating relative success of the feeding program. Differing from many studies where mother's education had commonly been a dominant and only parent gender significant factor to pupils' academic achievement, the study revealed that under circumstances of poor family economic status the education of fathers had higher association than mothers'.

DISCUSSIONS

Research findings on how fathering may influence children's educational outcomes to point to direct and mediated or indirect effects. Father's involvement includes not only the time spent by fathers' with the child, their activities with the child but also relational aspects described as warmth, support, decision making, monitoring, and gender-promotion, especially for sons. Although it was found that parents' education is the most influential correlate associated with the final grades, and BMI increased with the school feeding, parents' education was rather low and quality nutrition may not have been provided in the homes after the BLT meals. To be effective, school feeding has to be regular, continual and should be sustained in the homes to have lasting value in enhancing academic outcomes for schoolchildren.