Studies done in Kenya show that most pre-primary education programs suffer from poor quality services. However, many parents continue to enroll their children in these schools and it is not clear whether they are satisfied with the quality of services provided. The purpose of the present study was to establish the overall parents’ satisfaction with the quality of pre-primary education provided to their children in Bondo district, Kenya. The study also explored how parents’ satisfaction with the quality of pre-primary education related to type of school, parents’ education, income and gender. ExpectancyDisconfirmation Theory of Customer Satisfaction was used as the basic theory of the study. It was supported by the Harris School Poll’s Conceptual Model of Parents’ Satisfaction. The population for this study comprised of all parents with children in 206 pre-primary schools in Bondo District, Kenya. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The dependent variable was parents’ sat...

Investment in education is essential for both personal growth and economic development. Therefore, it is important to know the perception and satisfaction of the customers in these particular institutions. This study examined factors that affect parent satisfaction at International Language and Business Centre (ILBC), Yangon, Myanmar. The purpose of the this study was (1) to identify factors that affect parent satisfaction (2) to identify which factor has the most significant influence on parent satisfaction (3) to find out the relationship between those factors and parent satisfaction and the relationship between parent satisfaction and word of mouth. The research was conducted on parents of students who studied for at least four months at ILBC, Yangon, Myanmar. This is descriptive research using survey methodology. The survey instrument is divided into four sections. The first section asked the respondents to rate their perception of the service performance. The second section asked the respondents to rate how satisfied they are with the service. The third section asked the respondents whether they would or would not tell friends or relatives about ILBC. Finally, the fourth and last section explored the respondents' demographic profile. The data was collected from the sample size of 400 respondents and analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze the data regarding parent's perceived performance of factors associated with parent satisfaction, the relationship between those factors and parent satisfaction and the relationship between parent satisfaction and their word of mouth recommendation. Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient was used to analyze the hypothesis. The findings in the descriptive analysis are presented below in order of their perceived good performance; teacher communication, office staff (contact personnel), facility, teacher effectiveness, safety, principal effectiveness, student achievement and parent involvement. However, it was found that there were no large differences among the factors in terms of their perceived performance. In the hypothesis testing, all eight factors tested in the study (facility, safety, contact personnel, teacher effectiveness, teacher communication, principal effectiveness and student achievement) were found to be related to parent satisfaction. The level of their relationship to parent satisfaction are presented in order of their influence on parent satisfaction as follows; student achievement, principal effectiveness, teacher effectiveness, parental involvement, facility, contact personnel, teacher communication and safety. The study found that student achievement has the most significant influence on parent satisfaction followed by principal effectiveness and teacher effectiveness while safety has least influence on parent satisfaction. Finally, this study found that parent satisfaction is strongly related to their word of mouth recommendation of the school by others. Based on the findings, this researcher recommends that ILBC continues the service aspects tested in this study and allocates appropriate time, resources and workforce to balance the perceived performance and their influence on parent satisfaction.

RADOSŁAW KACZAN, PIOTR RYCIELSKI, OLGA WASILEWSKA: The article presents the results from a questionnaire survey on the opinion of parents about pre-school and early school education conducted in 2011. This analysis focuses on school assessment by parents who have at least one child attending school. in analyses, five factors describing parental satisfaction emerged: child satisfaction with school, learning load attractiveness of classes, contact with peers, special classes. Regression analyses were used to examine relations between identified factors and a general assessment of satisfaction with the care and education of the child. The strongest predictors for satisfaction with care and the child’s education are child’s satisfaction with school (factor 1) and attractiveness of classes (factor 3).

The quality of service and learning facilities affect parental satisfaction. Survey Research was conducted to determine the effect of service quality and learning facilities on the satisfaction of parents of students at HKBP Tomuan Pematangsiantar Private Elementary School. The results of this study indicate that the quality of services, learning facilities are good and the satisfaction of parents of student is satisfied. The results of a qualitative descriptive analysis of the quality of service in HKBP Tomuan Pematang Siantar Private School obtained an average rating of 3.59. In the reliability of the guarantee and specifications for teacher indicators in implementing hyperactive student supervision and the attitude of teachers in communicating get the highest average score of 3.81, whereas the lowest average value is 3.11 on the physical physical dimension (Tangibles) with indications of waiting conditions. The quality of service and learning facilities have a positive and significant effect on the satisfaction of parents of students at HKBP Tomuan Pematang Siantar Private Elementary School both simultaneously and partially.

TK Swasta Sriwijaya is one of kindergartens in Medan. Parents' high interest in sending their children to kindergartens is responded by the school management to increase their service quality which is balanced with tuition. Since the number of kindergartens is rapidly increasing, the management of TK Sriwijaya has to provide better service quality in order to be able to compete with the other schools of the same type. The objective of the research was to examine and to analyze the influence of tuition and service quality on parents' satisfaction and its effect on their loyalty at TK Swasta Sriwijaya, Medan, North Sumatera. The research used descriptive quantitative method and the level of associative explanatory approach. The population was 50 clients at TK Swasta Sriwijaya, and all of them were used as the samples, taken by using purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed by using Path analysis. The result of the analysis showed that the variable of tuition had positive and significant influence on parents' satisfaction, price and service quality had positive and significant influence on parents' satisfaction, tuition had positive and significant influence on parents' loyalty, service quality had positive and significant influence on parents' loyalty, tuition had positive and significant influence on parents' loyalty through parents' satisfaction, and service quality had positive and significant influence on parents' loyalty through parents' satisfaction.

Parents' contentment with their child's education is the subject of a modest but increasing corpus of research. However, little has been done to identify specific school services that attract parents' attention. This study assessed institutional variables and how they influence parental satisfaction with the quality of teaching, care for pupils, and safety. A random sample of parents (n ¼ 1,413) participated in the study. Data were collected using questionnaires, admission registers and staff disposition lists. The instruments passed through validity and reliability processes. Cronbach alpha estimates ranging from .81 to .84 provided evidence of internal consistency. Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used for analysis after data collection. Significant mean differences were found in parental contentment with the quality of teaching, care for pupils and pupils' safety based on schools' security, size, proximity and environmental attributes. Parents were more content with schools that provided safety, low teacher-pupil ratio, home proximity, and a learning-friendly environment. This study proved that school attributes are essential in determining parents' contentment with public primary school services. Parents become dissatisfied when their children are not receiving good services and may react by withdrawing them to other schools in search of greener pastures. This implies that parents' continued discontent with services will lead to a decline in future enrolment figures in public primary schools unless something is done promptly. Therefore, the government should provide school facilities for effective teaching and learning to improve public perception and contentment.