Academic Performance of Overseas Filipino Workes School Children

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN OF OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS (OFW)
IN TACLOBAN CITY

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A Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of the Graduate School

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In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for The Degree
Master of Arts in Administration and Supervision

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By
Jeanilen T. Salubon
March 2014

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION`
Background of the Study The academic performances of pupils differ, depending on the kind of environment they are in. One of the factors that the educators should look into is to fulfill their commitment to the school and society. Teachers should be aware of the socio-economic status of the pupils which is an important aspect in helping the pupils in their total development. Some school children whose parents are an Overseas Filipino Workers and the distance from their parents is of great factor affecting their studies. Pupils come to school also with varied degrees of intelligence, different environment, exposure and economic backgrounds. These factors may affect pupil academic performances.
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) sacrifices themselves to separate from their homes in order to sustain the basic needs of his/her family members. Home is the most important areas to be accounted for in understanding the life of a pupil, wherein a family sets an environment for the child depending upon its financial status, its educational attainment, interest, standard and moral values. These will determine success or failure of children in school, as teachers, he should have deeper insights into the different socio-economic indicators such as the main occupation of the parents, monthly combined family income, dependency burden and health status of the family which may directly or indirectly affect academic achievement of the pupils. The feeling of the pupils to attain a better academic achievement maybe affected by their parents socio- economic stability. Most Filipino migrates to other nations to find employment or support their families in the Philippines. A survey on Filipino Overseas Workers (OFW) conducted by National Statistic Office (NSO), nearly 20% of the population of the Philippines is working abroad. There are more male spouses work overseas than female spouses. This may be explained by the fact that child-rearing is left to the mother so she stays behind while the husbands leave for abroad (Abella, 2002). Male Overseas Filipino Workers spouses are likely to be in the age 41 while the female spouses are 38.6 years old (Morada, 2003). Overseas Filipino Worker families are young families with children who are at the childhood or adolescent stages. This is the stages where the presence and guidance of parents is important to raise well-functioning children more specifically on their studies. Children need more attention during these young stages of life wherein studying and learning is the central focus for survival (Abella, 2002). It is the fact that because of the distance in time and space, Filipino Overseas Workers do their best to connect to their home country. Advance technology such as cell phones and computers help a lot in easy communication. One sociological truth is that Filipino are close-knit families and no matter how far they are, manage to communicate with loved ones they left in their homes (Morada, 2003). Absence of one or both parents may affect the academic performance of elementary school children but there are children adjust to situation of parental absence while children with no OFW parents prefer the “Traditional family set up” where both parents are present. The conditions of young children are good indicators of the kind of care and attention that they receive in the family also if the purpose were to examine how children of Overseas Filipino Workers academic performance are affected (www.economicswebinstitute.org). It is then the purpose of this research to investigate the academic performance of the school children of Overseas Filipino Workers in order to help them improve their performance as early as possible. It is believed that the parents have strong motivational factors in encouraging pupils study hard and that the classroom is the best arena in which students develop their mind. It is along these considerations that this study is conducted.