Influence of motorcycle business on boychild school dropout in public secondary schools in Nyamira south sub- county, Nyamira county, Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya,just like other countries,there is tremendous increase in transportation of people and goods.The available means of transport can not sustain the transportation of good and services.On the other hand ,there is increased unemployment despite the increased cost of living and high levels of need for educated citizens.This has resulted to many youth including school going boys dropping out from school and engaging in motor cycle business.This study essentially focused on how the motor cycle business has influenced the boychild dropout from public secondary schools in Nyamira south subcounty,Nyamira county in Kenya.The study was guided by the following objectives;to investigate how the use of motorcycles as a mode of transport determines the boychild dropout from secondary schools in Nyamira south subcounty ,to find out how peer pressure influences the secondary school going boys to drop out of school and involve themselves in motor cycle business and to establish how the parental social economic levels influence the boychild to engaging in bodaboda business hence drop out of public secondary schools of Nyamira south.The study was based on Maslaws hierachy of needs theory and Tintos model of student retention. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with a target population of 40 public secondary schools, 80 parents,36 school principals,240 teachers,400 boys students of form one to four,180 motorcycle operators in Nyamira south ,Nyamira county.Stratified sampling techniques was used to get the schools to be sampled to participate.The entire population was divided into two strata based on two divisions in Nyamira south;Nyamira and Nyamaiya divisions.Random sampling was used to sample teachers,students and motorcycle operators.Therefore the sample of the study was 20 public schools, 40 parents,18 school principals,120 teachers,200 form one to four boys and 90 motor cycle operators of Nyamira south .The researcher used questionnaires for teachers,students and bodaboda operators to collect quantitative data .Both questionnaires and interviews were used to to collect qualitative data.Piloting was done to establish validity of these instruments.Reliability was tested using the test-retest technique to get a a correlation coefficient of 0.88.Quantitative data was coded consistently with the various variables and evaluated using computers using the statistical package for social sciences(SPSS) .The analysis of the quantitative data collected was done using the descriptive statistics. Qualitative data was analysed using themes.The findings was presented using graphs and tables and appropriate recommendations made.It was established that 48.85% of those boys that dropped school and engaged in motor cycle business were using motorcycle as a means of transport to and from school.20% of those who dropped out of school got influenced by others who had dropped out of school to engage in bodaboda business. 15% of the school dropouts were from social-economically low family backgrounds,and so tried to create some money from the business.These data after analysis led to a conclusion that these three factors may have led to the increased school dropout among other factors.The students who used motor cycles to school developed an interest to venture in the business hence dropped out of school.The study recommends that similar studies be carried out with a larger population from other subcounties.