Authors: 1Leckie Glenn, 2Jenice Wongsoredjo
1,2Anton de Kom University of Suriname,
Leysweg 86, AdeKUS Paramaribo, Suriname.
Corresponding Author E-mail: glenn.leckie@uvs.edu; glennleckie@gmail.com
Abstract: The purpose of the study was to ascertain how absence of fathers of Afro-Surinamese descent influences the educational performance of their children. The research design was a cross-sectional survey research design which assessed the academic performance of children with or without an Afro Surinamese father, either at home or absent. For the sampling procedure, a list of fifteen (15) junior high schools in the district of Paramaribo was received from Ministry of Education Science and Culture, considered the sampling frame. This frame was used to do a random sampling of the respondents. The 227 children sampled with or without an Afro Surinamese father were approached at the junior high schools in the district of Paramaribo. The interview was done using a Ministry of Education Science and Culture approved questionnaire and the academic performances were taken from the school exam records for the chosen subjects. The choice was done after consultations with the school headmasters and teachers who decided which subjects are the best indicators for school performance. The study findings were calculated using the chi-square test for homogeneity. The analysis did not find a significant result regarding the association of the academic performances; English language, Dutch and Accounting. None of the pairwise comparisons were statistically significant. Significant results were found when analyzing the moderate scores for mathematics. However, the analysis showed that students with an Afro Surinamese father present and an Afro Surinamese not present have a significant difference in their moderate scores. A significant result was also found between the groups a present Afro Surinamese father, compared to students from a different household. The study concluded that the calculated effect and evaluation of the specific contribution on the marks indicated that ‘father absence’ may not necessarily have a negative effect on all grades, only on the moderate grades for mathematics, the children from Afro-Surinamese Fathers do better. Owing to the study findings, the study therefore recommended that: to respond to a need to update methods of testing for assessing students’ performance rather than only having written tests which just asses reproduce knowledge. The researchers are also of the opinion that it is meaningful to appoint counsellors including peer counselors at the junior high schools to advise and assist students with less favorable family situations to benefit from the current universal, contemporary challenge, for remote, distant education as an education method imposed by the Covid pandemic.
Keywords: Academic Performance, Father absence, Afro-Surinamese, Afro-Surinamese education, junior high schools, Surinamese academic performance, Suriname fathers, Father absence effects
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Suggested Citation
Leckie, G. & Wongsoredjo, J. (2022). Effect of absence of Afro-surinamese fathers on the academic performance of their children. African Research Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 9(1), 10-20. doi link: https://doie.org/10.0502/ARJESS.2022956439
