Association between GCE Ordinary Level results and characteriestics of foreign employment of parents of Advanced Level students in a national school in Wennappuwa

Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among randomly selected 110 A/L students whose parents are foreign employees. Information on socio demographic characteristics, GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) results and characteristics of foreign employment of their parents were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyse the data.


Background
A foreign worker is a person who works in a country other than the one in which he or she is a citizen. Even though migration of parents helps in uplifting implications. Foreign employment of parents directly results in deterioration of foundation of the family and affecting the individuals of the family adversely [1].
child is important to the child's socio emotional development and wellbeing. It has been proved that the absence of mother from the country caused a twofold increase in mental health problems of children [2]. development. Hence, the children whose parents are abroad for foreign employment show less-interest towards their education [3]. In North America, it has been found that the separation from fathers reduced the educational attainment for whites and Hispanic children [4]. A study about Mexican migration to USA on gender, educational attainment, and the impact of parental migration on children left behind reports a drop in educational performance with the father being employed abroad [5]. Another study from Philippines concludes that "the children of be lagging behind in school when compared to the children of migrant fathers" [6].
Literature also shows that both reduced school performance and neglected health are two closely related effects affecting the left behind children of migrant parents. A survey conducted in the Hunan Province of China, involving rural children aged from 8 to 18, has shown that "left-behind children were disadvantaged in health behaviour and school engagement than the children living in non-migrant families" [7].
In Sri Lanka, the North Western Province has the highest number of foreign employment seekers after Western Province. A considerable number of them from this province are from the Puttalam employment and academic excellence of children in the Puttalam District in Sri Lanka has not been to bridge the gap between the current knowledge on parental migration in Sri Lanka and its effects research was to determine the association between academic performance and characteristics of foreign Education, Advanced Level (GCE A/L) students of a national school in Wennappuwa.

Methods
In a descriptive cross-sectional study, 110 participants from Grade 12 A/L students, aged 16 -18 years, from a national school in Wennappuwa obtained and numbered. Random numbers were generated and students matching the numbers were exclusion criteria were selected until sample size was being employed abroad for a minimum period of 6 this particular school was for convenience. Primary data were obtained by using a selfcomprised questions inquiring into the sociodemographic features and GCE O/L results of the participants, and the characteristics of foreign factors collected were school of primary education, distance from home to school, accommodation, educational level of the father and mother, and the presence of elder and younger siblings. categories: more than or equal to four S passes but less than four B passes; and four B passes or of parents were categorized as: status of foreign employment (only mother, only father), caregiver of the participant (parent, other); country of foreign employment (Italy, other); mother's category of foreign employment (skilled, non-skilled); duration than 4 years); mother's number of visits to Sri Lanka (once or more per year, other); father's category of foreign employment (skilled, non-skilled); duration than 10 years); and father's number of visits to Sri Lanka (once or more per year, other). the characteristics of foreign employment was the Ethics Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.

Results
were male and Sinhalese. Socio-demographic father employed abroad. Most of the parents were in Italy and were employed for a long duration (e.g. 10 years or more for fathers and 4 years or more for mothers).
of parental foreign employment with the GCE was found between the GCE O/L results and the father's foreign employment duration (p=.02). No associations were found between the GCE O/L results and the duration of mother's employment, country of employment, category of employment, which parent is employed and the regularity of visits back home.

Discussion
Our study found that there is an association between GCE O/L results of students and the duration of fathers employed abroad for more than 10 years degree than the students with fathers employed agreement with the study on "gender, educational attainment, and the impact of parental migration a drop in educational performance with the father did not compare the different durations of foreign employment of the father with the educational performance.
Our study discovered that there was no association between educational performance and the duration contradictory to the results of the study conducted in Philippines that concluded: "the children of migrant behind in school when compared to the children smaller number of mothers involved in our study.
Our study found no association between educational performance and both parents being employed abroad when compared to a single parent being of a study in Ghana, Nigeria and Angola" [9], again explained by the small sample size and a majority of fathers only working overseas.
duration of the father's foreign employment with the poor academic performance implies the importance of a father's presence for the wellbeing of a child. between which parent is employed abroad implies that both parents are equally important for children's association between the category of employment indicates that it is the presence of the parent that better category of employment.
Our results, though mainly related to educational performance, would have important implications on the health and well-being of the children left behind by foreign employed parents. As shown in a study in China [7], it is not only the educational performance of the child that would be compromised when parents leave their children to seek foreign employment. Hence, in those children of foreign employed parents who are underperforming educationally should also be screened for other health and well-being issues. this region and hence provides some information regarding this problem. Although using GCE O/L results as a measure of academic performance provided a standard measure, there was no means of verifying the accuracy of the self-reported results by the participants.

Conclusions and recommendations
that affect the performance at the GCE O/L results mother's duration of employment, country of CJMS 2018; 55(2):50-54 employment, category of employment, which parent is employed and the regularity of visits back home. However, there were many limitations in this study. Educating the school authorities and parents to provide better support to the students whose fathers are in foreign employment for a long duration and to conduct an island wide study, with a larger sample size, are recommended. Such a study should include both girls and boys from all age groups. Other performance indicators such as involvement in sports, extracurricular activities should also be assessed.