Association between GCE Ordinary Level results and characteriestics of foreign employment of parents of Advanced Level students in a national school in Wennappuwa

Abstract

Background: Migration of parents seeking foreign employment has become an important issue, due to effects on their children’s health and educational performance. Such effects can depend on the characteristics of the parents’ foreign employment. Objective: To determine the association between academic performance and characteristics of foreign employment of parents in General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A/L) students of a national school in Wennappuwa. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among randomly selected 110 A/L students whose parents are foreign employees. Information on socio demographic characteristics, GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) results and characteristics of foreign employment of their parents were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyse the data. Results: Majority of the parents of the study participants were employed in Italy (77%), more fathers employed abroad than mothers. A significantly higher proportion of students with fathers employed in foreign countries for less than or equal to 10 years had better academic performance than the proportion of students with fathers employed in foreign countries for more than 10 years (p=0.02). No significant association was found between the child’s academic performance and the category of parent’s employment, country of employment, number of visits to Sri Lanka and the duration of the mother’s employment. Conclusions: The GCE O/L results of this group of students was associated with a shorter duration of employment of the father overseas, but not with the country of employment, category of employment, which parent is employed and the regularity of visits back home.