state level have included parents as essential elements in their frameworks for

to support their child’s learning at home, but most schools rely on voluntary labour from parents to maintain school premises and to provide educational activities to students. The involvement of fathers, however, may differ in quantity and quality from that of mothers. Given the well-documented differences between father and mother involvement in children’s care, a marked difference in mothers ’ and fathers’ participation in school activities would be expected (Bittman, 1995; Bittman & Pixley, 1997). Evidence of the positive effects of father involvement has recently been reported. In the US, a large cross-sectional survey carried out by the US Department of Educational Statistics (National Center for Education Statistics, 1998) found that academic performance increased significantly if fathers were highly involved in schools, and that this effect was independent of household income, race, family type and mothers ’ and fathers ’ education. Father involvement was also found to be independent of mothers ’ involvement, even though mothers tend to be involved when fathers are. In the UK, adolescents ’ perceptions of their father’s involvement has been found to significantly influence students ’ positive Involvement of fathers i