Publication: Factors influencing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination performance in public mixed day secondary schools in Sabatia sub-county,Kenya.
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2015-10
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Mount Kenya University
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to
assess
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination
(K.C.S.E) performance
in Public Mixed Day secondary schools in Sabatia Sub
-
county of Vihiga.
K.C.S.E performance
in Public Mixed Day secondary schools in Sabatia Sub
-
county
of
Vihiga
County has been poor. Poor KCSE performance affects selection and placement of students to
Technical/Vocational Institutes, Tertiary colleges and Universities. Specifically, the study sought
to identify school related factors that contribute to p
oor KCSE performance; analyze the effects of
parental education and occupation on quality of students’ academic performance and to evaluate
existing mechanisms used to monitor students’ performance. The study used the
Ecological
systems theory as a basis t
o asses KCSE performance in
Public Mixed Day secondary schools.
The study adopted a mixed research methodology approach. Both probability and non
-
probability
sampling techniques were employed to recruit respondents for the study. 384 students were
randomly
selected from the schools. Key informants who included the Principals, Board of
Management members, Parents Teachers Association (PTA) members, Parents and Education
officers were selected purposively. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data f
rom the
384 students and 75 Key Informants. The validity and reliability of the instruments was determined
by piloting of the instruments; an alpha Cronbanch threshold value of 0.7 was used to ascertain
validity and reliability of the instruments. Views of
Key informants were also sampled through a
10 item Likert
-
type Key informant guides and a one on one interview for Curriculum supervisors.
Quantitative data obtained from students and Key Informants was subjected to descriptive survey
analysis to obtain
means, modes, frequencies and standard deviations using the Statistical package
for Social Scientists Program (SPSS) Version 22. Qualitative data was analysed by content
analysis techniques using themes from comments from answers obtained during interviews
.
Analysed data has been presented in form of charts, tables and narratives.
The study established
that the
school based factors that
lead to poor KCSE performance are related to poor teacher
commitment and lack of facilities; these factors include non
-
com
pletion of syllabi on time, failure
by
teachers attend all lessons (86%), failure by teachers to
carry out experiments/ practical’s in
science lessons (73.4%), and failure by teachers to demonstrate during lessons (89%).
The study
also established that most
parents have low levels of education and are outside formal employment and
this negatively affects the quality of education because of the limited support parents can offer. The study
also established that although Principals carry out routine monitorin
g practices, such monitoring practices
have some weaknesses. The study recommends that the Government should fully fund secondary
education to reduce the problem of school levies, lack of textbooks and leave parents to fend for other basic
needs such as fo
od. Principals need to also carry out more than routine monitoring to ensure that there is
effective monitoring. Finally, the study recommends
further research to establish the best strategies to
utilize the limited time available in the day schools to im
prove performance in KCSE performance.
Description
Keywords
Education Planning