| dc.description.abstract | The goal of infrastructure system in secondary school education seeks to increase school attendance of students, enhance staff motivation and to improve academic achievement of students. It is assumed that favourable attitude towards school infrastructure and quality facilities promote performance in secondary school education. On this backdrop, most states and governments, Kenya government included, have to pursue this aspect of development if the broad national goals of education have to achieve.
Current studies have examined the attitudes of students and teachers towards school infrastructure and its relationship with public secondary school access, attendance, retention and academic achievement and have underscored the importance of improved, secure, clean, safe and learner sensitive facilities as a critical component in promoting quality secondary schooling. Achievement of quality secondary education in Kenya is part of the second goal in Millennium Development goals (MDGs) and a central point in the government plan for Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS). In pursuit of the above goals, the government has designed a number of strategies which include collaboration with private sector, unilateral agencies as well as through a cost sharing policy with parents and communities in provision of school facilities; however, public secondary school facilities are still poor according to studies leaving achievement of student minimal.
In view of this, the study was carried out to investigate the influence that School Buildings and Classrooms, Learning Resource Centers, Sanitation Facilities and Furniture have on student. achievement within public secondary schools in Rachuonyo North District. Most students in Rachuonyo North District still operate in temporary structures where learning sometimes is conducted under trees. There is adverse shortage of furniture. Electricity is yet to be fixed in over 80% of the schools. Many classes also have very poor sound control system; this inhibits the teaching learning process. Many schools with an average of 170 students mainly mixed schools still rely on utmost two latrines. This leads to long queue even when lessons are on. This has greatly hampered attention in the teaching learning process.
This was a descriptive crosssectional study employing quantitative methods. The target population of this study was the entire population of 43 public secondary schools from the large Rachuonyo North district. Out of the 43 public schools, 30 were randomly selected for the study. The respondents were basically 120 students out of 7310 students, 4 from each sampled school. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 12. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages, proportions and rates were generated to analyze sociodemographic characteristics of the sample. The outcome variables were compared with socio demographic characteristics of respondents.
Standardized questionnaires were administered to the respondents where they were to rank the status of their infrastructure facilities and to indicate the influence that these facilities have on their performance. It was found that the state of infrastructure in schools is directly proportional to student achievement. It was therefore concluded that performance in secondary schools is influenced by several factors one most important one being the state of infrastructure. It was therefore among others recommended that some basic minimum package of school infrastructure which is accessible, durable, functional, safe and hygienic be part of strategy for secondary education. Finally the research concludes by suggesting that this study be replicated in the whole nation or in primary schools in the same District to give a more accurate generalization of findings. The study findings will be useful to the Ministry of Education in planning for appropriate Education interventions for students given the existing infrastructure in order to improve learning conditions. | en_US |
