Institutional Factors Influencing Institutionalized Street Children’S Participation In Primary School Education In Southern Zone Kisumu East Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The study aimed at establishing institutional factors influencing institutionalized street children’s participation in primary school education in Southern Zone, Kisumu East Sub-county, Kenya. Its four objectives were; to assess how feeding programmes, guidance and counseling, physical resources and teacher-pupil ratio affect participation rates of institutionalized street children in Southern zone, Kisumu East Sub-County, Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey design whereby structured questionnaires were given to a random sampled population of 12 centre managers, 81 instructors and 2159 children out of a target population of 15 centre managers, 108 instructors and 2698 children. The questionnaire return rate was 80 percent indicating that the study would not reflect a major deviation from the true picture on the ground. Apart from questionnaires the study utilized two other sets of data collection instruments namely interview schedules and observation schedules. The questionnaires contained both open-ended and closed-ended questions. Instrument validity was determined through expert judgement from university supervisors while the reliability was determined using internal consistency. The three sets of questionnaires were considered reliable since they had a high coefficient value of 0.8. The study findings indicate that feeding programmes positively (80 percent) influenced children’s participation in rehabilitation centres since it contributed to a great extent enrolment retention and class attendance. Guidance and counseling also contributed positively (90 percent) to increased participation and from the interviews, it had direct bearing on retention and completion rates. Apart from guidance and counseling, other social and psychological support programmes existed in the sampled rehabilitation activities and cultural – based activities. These were particularly found to be helping the children shed trauma acquired from the streets hence increasing class size and class attendance. The availability of physical facilities was not found to be uniform across the sampled centres but the centres that had complete or nearly complete dining halls, kitchens, classrooms and latrines had higher enrolments hence confirming that physical facilities positively influence enrolment and retention. However, the use of teaching and learning resources was found to be poor across. Teacher – pupil ratio was found to be negatively influencing participation rates of the children since the centres that had few instructors had few children as well. The study therefore concluded that the four independent variables; feeding programme, guidance and counseling, physical resources and teacher-pupil ratio have a positive influence on children’s participation rates. The study recommended that the government should ensure that rehabilitation centres offering primary education operate within the guidance of Ministry of education. The study further recommended a similar study in the neighbouring sub-counties so that the findings are compared and improvements made.