HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURES ON EDUCATION BY PARENTS OF STUDENTS ATTENDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS AT THE PRIMARY EDUCATION LEVEL

The purpose of the study is to find out the amount of household expenditures by parents of the primary school students and whether these expenditures differ in terms of some school-related variables and socio-economic variables. The data were collected from a population consisting of 707 families from 6 public primary education schools located in different socio-economic environments during 2011-2012 school year. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, as well as non-parametric test Kruskal Wallis H Test and parametric t-test and ANOVA. Mann Whitney U test and Post Hoc Tukey test were used to find out the differences between groups. In terms of school-related variables, parents’ household education expenditures at primary education level were found to differ significantly according to type of school transportation and school’s socio-economic status [SES], no significant difference was observed according to type of schooling. Parents’ household education expenditures at primary education level were found to differ significantly in terms of socio-economic variables including whom the student lives with, parents’ educational background, parents’ professions, family income, type of accommodation, number of children attending primary education schools, and students’ grade level.