Parental engagement in the education of Grade 1 learners during COVID-19 Pandemic in Rakwadu 2 Circuit

Abstract

The study sought to investigate parental engagement in the education of Grade 1 learners during the Covid-19 pandemic in Rakwadu 2 Circuit in Limpopo province. The Covid-19 pandemic led to an abrupt closure of all South African schools on the 18th of March 2020. Therefore, the closure of schools was the right decision to control the spreading of the virus among learners and teachers. However, learners’ performance was severely affected as they languished at home without any curricular assistance from parents. The study was guided by Joyce Epstein's theory, subsumed under the interpretive research paradigm. An explorative qualitative research design was employed, and data were collected through face-to-face interviews, observations and document analysis. Observations were conducted with the teachers only. Teachers were observed while collecting work from the learners and further analysed thematically. A purposeful sampling procedure was employed to select twelve (12) participants from two (2) primary schools; two (2) Grade 1 teachers per school (the total number of teachers was 4) and eight (8) parents whose learners were in Grade 1. There were four parents from each sampled school. The findings revealed distinctive challenges of insufficient parental engagement in the school setting. The study recommended parents to get involved in education to improve learners’ performance amidst the impact of the Covid19 pandemic.