Publication:

An investigation of the factors contributing to poor Performance in geography in public day schools in lower Yatta Sub- county, Kitui county.

Education at secondary school level is a very important determinant of the quality and quantity of intake to tertiary level of education. In Kenya this is based on the performance of individual candidates in K.C.S.E examination. Students who would wish to pursue geography related courses have to sit for geography exams in K.C.S.E Examinations and score grade which will enable them to achieve their dreams. However this is not always the case since many students find themselves doing different courses because they perform poorly in geography. The purpose of this study was to establish the factors that contribute to poor performance in geography among students in lower Yatta Sub-county, Kitui County. The study was guided by the following objectives: - to find out how poor geography teaching methodologies cause low performance in geography in the K.C.S.E examinations in public day schools in lower Yatta sub-county. To find out how negative altitude and misconceptions cause poor performance in geography in K.C.S.E examinations in public day schools in lower Yatta sub-county. To establish the extend at which absenteeism causes poor in geography in K.C.S.E examinations in lower Yatta sub county. To investigate how inadequate resources cause poor performance in geography in K.C.S.E examination in lower Yatta Sub-county Kitui County. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. There are 24 public day secondary schools in lower Yatta sub-county. Twenty (20) of them were sampled for the study. The study targeted geography teachers and the students especially form threes and form fours from the sampled secondary schools. Random sampling technic was used to sample students for the study while purposive sampling technic was used to sample geography teachers. Five (5) respondents were sampled from each school ie 4 students and 1 teacher. A total of 100 respondents were targeted by the study, ie 80 students and 20 teachers. Questionnaires were used by the researcher as instrument for the data collection. Statistical package for the social science.(SPSS) version 21 was used to analyze the data. Description such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to summarize the data. The analysed data was presented inform of tables, pie charts and bar graphs.