The impact of child labour on boys’ and girls’ participation in Public day Secondary School Education in Kiminini Sub-County, Transnzoia County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of child labour on boys’ and girls’ participation in public day secondary school education in Kiminini sub- county Trans-Nzoia County and establish ways of mitigating it. Specific objectives were: to establish the impact of child labour on boys’ and girls’ school attendance in public day secondary school education in Kiminini sub-county, to establish the impact of child labour on boys’ and girls’ learning achievements in public day secondary school education in Kiminini sub-county, to determine the impact of child labour on boys’ and girls’ completion rates in public day secondary school education in Kiminini sub-county and to establish school intervention measures to mitigate impact of child labour on boys’ and girls’ participation in public day secondary schools. The study reviewed related literature with regard to impact of child labour on boys and girls participation in public day secondary school education. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The study had targeted the following population; 47 school principals, 188 class teachers, 23,500 parents and 23,500 students, in public day secondary school in Kiminini Sub-county, Trans-Nzoia County and the area children officer. The study sample size comprised 14 principals, 56 class teachers, 150 students and 150 parents. The 150 students together with their parents were selected randomly from the 14 schools. The instruments for collecting data that were used in this study included questionnaires and interview schedules. After editing and sorting out the questionnaires for completeness, returns and coding analysis of the data was done. For the quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data to give the percentages and frequencies. Computer software, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. Data was presented in frequency tables. The study established that the work children do out of school greatly affect their school attendance as it makes the students miss school frequently. In this case girls were more affected by child labour than boys. The study also established that child labour greatly influenced boys’ and girls’ learning achievements. This was because the work children do out of school affected their academic performance and interrupted their completion of assignments. The study also established that child labour greatly influenced boys’ and girls’ school completion rate. The study established that there were cases of students who have dropped out of school in the last 5 years (2015-2019) in their institution due to child labour. The study further established that School intervention measures to mitigate child labour also influenced boys’ and girls’ participation in public day secondary school education. The study additionally established that in most schools there were school intervention measures to mitigate the influence of child labour. The study then concluded that child labour greatly influenced school attendance as it made the students to miss school frequently where girls were more affected by child labour than boys. In addition, the study concluded that child labour greatly influenced boys’ and girls’ learning achievements as well as boys’ and girls’ school completion rate. Finally, the study concluded that school intervention measures to mitigate child labour greatly influenced boys’ and girls’ participation in public day secondary. Consequently, the study recommended that the problem of child labour in Kiminini sub-county can be tackled by the people themselves in the Kiminini community if the local community is adequately empowered with knowledge on the importance of education in the present day society. The study further recommended that to mitigate child labour, the government officials should ensure enforcement of the law prohibiting child labour, and these should be enforced by chiefs and authorized government offices. Since the study covered only Kiminini subcounty, there is need to replicate same study in all the other sub counties of Trans Nzoia county and establish the impact of child labour on boys’ and girls’ participation in public day secondary school education.