The study investigated the perceived roles of African rural parents in child education and development. It examined among other things, some selected personal and socio-economic characteristics of parents and their level of role performance in the education and development of their children, and recommendations were made for enhancing adequate educational development of African children. The study was conducted in rural communities of Oyo State in Southwestern Nigeria with the use of an interview schedule to source information from 186 parents (and their children aged 11-18 years). The parents were randomly selected from each of the four zones (Oyo, Saki, Ibadan/Ibarapa and Ogbomoso) in the study area. Descriptive statistical techniques such as frequency counts and percentages were used to summarize the data. Pearson's correlation and Spearman's rank correlation analyses were used to determine the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of parents and the level of development of the school child, and the congruence between role perception and role performance of parents. The study revealed among others, that variables such as educational level (r = 0.188), religion (r = 0.096), income level (r = 0.172), cosmopolitenness (r = 0.088) and membership of the Parents-Teachers' Association (r = 0.162) had a positive and significant relationship with their level of role performance. Also, a highly significant relationship was established between the level of education and development of a rural child and the level of role performance by the parents (r = 0.118).