Thesis:

Influence of socio-cultural practices on academic achievement of girls in public primary schools in Turkana East sub county, Kenya

The aim of the research is to establish the influence of socio-cultural practices on academic achievement of girls in public primary schools of Turkana East Sub County, Turkana County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; to establish the influence of early marriages on academic achievement of girls; to assess the influence of domestic violence on academic performance of girls; to establish the influence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on academic achievement of girls and to examine the influence of social roles on academic achievement of girls in public primary schools in Turkana East Sub- County, Turkana County. Social Cultural Theory and Bourdieu Theory of Practise guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey design where both qualitative and quantitative data was collected. Data collection instruments included; Focus group discussion to be administered to girls in regular schools, Questionnaire to Girls in rescue schools, head teachers, guidance and counselling teachers and document analysis such as registers and progress records were used. The study population included all public schools in Turkana East sub county, CSO (1), head teachers (37), teachers (151) and grade seven girls (484) in the Turkana East Sub County all totalling to 673 participants. Krejcie and Morgan Table was used to get the sample size of 248 respondents. The pilot study was carried out and face and content validity of the research instruments were assessed by experts’ opinion to ascertain their relevance, meaningfulness and appropriateness to the respondents. Reliability of the instruments was resolved through the internal consistency where Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient of 0.7 and above was considered acceptable. Analysis of variance indicated that model was significant at a confidence level of 95% since the P – Value was 0.000b and hence >0.05. The R - Squared of the study model was able to explain 64.6% of changes in academic achievement of girls in public primary schools of Turkana East Sub County. Data were descriptively analyzed using means and standard deviations, and inferentially by Pearson's correlation and regression analysis to measure strength and direction. Inferential analysis study findings established that the four variables; early marriage practices (β= 0.654, p<0.05), domestic violence practices (β= 0.443, p<0.05), FGM practices (β= 0.568, p<0.05) and social roles (β= 0.358, p<0.05) were found to be statistically significant in influencing the academic achievement of girls in public primary schools of Turkana East Sub County. The study concludes that since the model of the study was significant at a confidence level of 95% with a P – Value of 0.000b, the study therefore recommends that early marriage practices, domestic violence, FGM practices and social roles practices which were found to be statistically significant should be addressed so as to create a safer and more supportive environment that would enable improved academic achievement of girls in public primary schools in Turkana East Sub County.