Parental Migrants and the Academic Achievements of Students: Basis for the Proposed Intervention Programs

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Philippine Statistics Authority estimated the number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in 2016 at about 2.2 million. The situation is crucial since strong family ties is one of the Filipinos most distinguished traits. Gen. E. Aguinaldo National High School has the tendency to have students suffer from loneliness since some of their parents are working abroad. There are students who are not performing well as reflected in the report cards. There are also some students who made many absences. These factors may cause dropouts had the teachers not give much attention to those cases mentioned above. Loneliness has a direct negative effect on adjustment and coping style (Lijuan Quan et al, 2014). This study, Parental Migrants and the Academic Achievements of Students: Basis for the Proposed Intervention Programs investigated if parental migrants have a significant effect on the academic performance of students.

METHODS

The proponents utilized mixed-method with the convergence of both quantitative and qualitative types of research; purposive sampling for sample A (students with migrant parents) and random sampling for sample B (students living with their parents). The proponents used: 1. the Chi-square test, particularly the Sign Test for Two Independent samples, another test for nonparametric statistics to test the hypotheses and 2. the instruments were (a) report cards for the average of the first to third grading periods of the students during the School Year 2018-2019 and(b) a semi-structured interview schedule for survey and group discussion to establish phenomena.

RESULTS

This study showed that: 1) there is no significant difference between the academic performance of the students with migrant parents and students living with their parents, 2) there is a significant difference on the academic performance of students when grouped according to the gender of the migrant parents, 3) there is no significant difference in the academic performance of boys and girls who have migrant mothers, and 4) educational expectations were not reduced among students who experienced parental absence, but students with migrant parents strongly agreed that they experienced loneliness being afar from their parents.

DISCUSSIONS

The results of this study suggest that there must be an intervention program like a Psychological Counseling Program, Recreational Activities, and Family Orientation/Awareness for some students with migrant parents because of the loneliness they have experienced.