Publication:

Socio economic factors influencing students performance in Mwala sub county Machakos county

Kenya Secondary School education is offered to students who successfully finish their primary school course. Students who enroll for this course are mainly teenagers in their adolescent age. The purpose of the study was to determine social economic factors influencing students’ performance in Mwala Sub County. The study was guided by some objectives which included establishing the influence of economic factors on students’ academic performance, to establish the socio cultural factors on student academic performance and to determine the influence of school based factors on parents’ social economic ability and students’ performance in Mwala Sub County. To achieve the objectives the study used social learning theory by Bandura. In Mwala Sub County, the widespread number of secondary schools admits an encouraging number of students who are eager to pursue this kind of education, dominated by both gender. Secondary school education provides the bridge towards tertiary education and therefore plays an important role in transforming boys and girls into responsible adults in the society. However, that is not the case in Mwala Sub County since the progress of the pursuit of its ultimate goal is undermined by the parents’ socio economic background. This is because many of the students at school depend on their parents’ income for school fees payment when, in most cases, the parents in rural have unsteady incomes, leading to mass drop out of students from school. Statistics show that over 50% of students who enrolled in form one record poor performance in academics up to the completion of the course. Factors contributing to this situation are yet to be established. This study sought to establish socio economic factors on students’ performance in Mwala Sub County. Ex post facto research was used. The population of the study constituted of secondary school parents and students. 50 secondary school students were selected using simple random sampling while 25 secondary school parents were selected purposively. Questionnaires and interview guide were used to collect data. Content, construct and face validity of the instruments were validated by experts from Curriculum, instructions and Educational Management Department of Education and from Curriculum of Applied Community Development Studies of Mount Kenya University. Piloting of the instruments was conducted in 5 secondary schools using 10 secondary school students and 5 parents form each school. The researcher adopted Cronbach’s alpha of estimating reliability. In this study data was analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. Findings of the study were presented using tables and graphs. The findings of this study would help the Ministry of Education (MOE), NGOs, CBOs, Parents, Teachers and Communities to put in place policies and resources that might influence secondary school performance positively.