Impact of Parental Migration on Student Academic Performance: A Case of Two Selected Peri Urban Schools in Marondera in Zimbabwe

Abstract

UNHCR (2008) pointed out that there were 15, 2 million refugees and 827 000 asylum seekers in countries like the U.S who now rely on immigrant labour. Parental migration has resulted in an increase in child headed families. Older children have increasingly been left in charge of the younger siblings and the households as a whole as one or both parents try their luck outside the country. The effects of migration is multifaceted as it includes limited parental love and care towards children and family members, children being involved in  antisocial activities like prostitution because of  lack of  parental guidance and worse still the negative effects on academic performance has far reaching consequences. Convenience sampling was undertaken to select a sample of teachers and pupils whose parents are in Diaspora. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and the data gathering process was through interviews. Over and above the vulnerability of children who were left behind to child abuse, be it sexual, emotional, and psychological and neglect, the study revealed that children left behind lack guidance whose repercussion on education includes no supervised studying at home, lack of educational provisions like books, pens, and misuse of money by those pupils who receive a lot of cash from parents who are outside the country. The study therefore recommended that parental migration should be discouraged as much as possible, and if at all it has taken place then there is need to periodically return home to check on the welfare of the children.