Exploring the Impact of Demographic Variables Gender, Parental Education and Locality on Science Achievement at 8th and 9th Grades

Quality of science education is under the consideration of educationists and researchers. Achievement in science subjects, which is one of the indicators of quality of science education, determines not only the students' performance but it also helps the teachers to evaluate their teaching strategies. This study is an effort to explore the factors related to science achievement in Pakistani perspective. In this survey, science achievement scores of the students of 8th grade decide their entrance in science subjects at 9thgrade. Sample of 1149 students of 8th and 9th grade students of high and elementary government schools were taken randomly for data collection. Major results were that parental qualification and maternal job status effect significantly students' science achievement. Female students were significantly higher than male students, and 8thgrade students were significantly higher than 9th grade students in their science achievement scores. It is recommended that teachers of secondary schools and rural schools during parent teacher meeting may motivate the parents to supervise their children during studies at home and they themselves study books at home.