To investigate the causes of low transition rates from Primary schools to secondary schools in Mwingi west sub County.

Abstract

This study was aimed at finding out the causes of low transition rates from primary schools to secondary schools in Mwingi west sub-county. The researcher observed that there are many hindrances to secondary schools and to colleges and universities from secondary schools. Among such hindrances are poverty and illiteracy of the parents of such learners. Therefore the study aimed to establish reasons behind this low transition rate and the recommendations will be made on how possible to curb this problem and raise the transition among the students in the sub-county for the welfare of individual learners and for the country’s welfare at large. Mwingi west sub-county has about 250 primary schools, 64 secondary schools, two teacher training colleges, several ECD colleges and two university branches. The sub-county has enrolment rate of 70% for both boys and girls. The mobility of learning from any level of learning is very crucial because it will enable an individual to get more exposed to reality of life and get engaged in activities that can help them generate income for their living. Therefore, it is worth noting that the factors that cause low transition rates between different levels of learning should be tabled so that individuals may be aware of them and seek to required mobility a well. Despite the fact that enrolment into primary and secondary schools in Mwingi west sub-county is high due to introduction of free primary education program and subsidized secondary education in Kenya, transition rates from each level of learning to the next one have remained to be low. This situation inconveniences many stakeholders like teachers, parents, students, and district education officers. It also impacts negatively to individuals and the community of Mwingi west sub-county at large. This called for the attention of the researcher to investigate the factors that cause low transition rates in different levels of learning in Mwingi west sub-county. The researcher focused on finding out why the transition rates are low in Mwingi sub-county, the percentage of the learners who qualify to proceed to the next level of learning from primary school to secondary school, the criteria and procedure that is used in placing and selecting learners for successive levels of learning, highlight the problems that parents and guardians face as they educate their children in secondary schools The researcher applied the following instruments; questionnaires, interviews and observation. Questionnaires were deployed to extract information from students, teachers, school leavers and head teachers who were selected using simple random sampling and also employed both descriptive survey research design.