| dc.description.abstract | Education is very important since it defines the future of our children. However, it is faced with challenges which include dwindling performance and reduced quality. This is attributed to interplay of factors which include inability to pay school fees, the high costs of uniform, shoes, transport, and stationery, added to the opportunity costs of what children might be contributing to household labour, socialization of students, tradition and cultures which do not recognize the value of education. The main purpose of the study was to identify factors determining students 'academic performance in public secondary schools education in Karemo division, Siaya district. The assessment indicators were to determine factors influencing students' academic performance in public secondary schools in Karemo division.
This study was designed to fulfill four objectives namely; to establish the influence of social factors on students' academic performance in public secondary schools, to examine how Economic factors influence students' academic performance in public secondary schools, to investigate the extent to which Cultural factors influence students' academic performance il) public secondary schools, and to assess how student related factors influence their academic performance in public secondary schools in Karemo division. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design in evaluating the influence.
This design was used because it described variables in order to answer the research questions and provides ease in relating the variables to the conceptual framework to avoid building on previous work, while ensuring accuracy in measurement of variables. The target population was 4355 students, 225 teachers and 15 head teachers out of which 195 respondents were sampled randomly to ensure that every respondent had a chance to be selected. The study covered all the schools in the division since they give more than 100 respondents recommended for social science research. Questionnaires were used for primary data collection while books, journals, newspapers and reports were used to obtain secondary data.
A pilot study was carried out in Boro division, on 3 schools, before the research, to assess the validity and reliability of instruments. Descriptive statistical components such as measures of central tendencies and dispersion were used to analyze the responses, concerns and views of the respondents to give general descriptions of the data. The analyzed data was then be presented in tables. The study findings established that death of one or both parents reduced the academic performance of the students, engagement in manual labour negatively affected the academic performance of the students, too much engagement in family chores had a negative impact on the academic performance of students. Little income of the parents also affected the students through inability to pay fees; being sent home to collect school fees also affected the academic performance of the students.
Parents who depended on business as their source of income had students who performed poorly. Students with parents who were formally employed scored higher grades in their academics. Students who were overly engaged in community ceremonies such as death ceremonies scored lower grades than students who were not. Student related factors such as poor discipline, little personal studies and poor health negatively affected performance of the students. The study concluded that social, economic, cultural and student related factors such as discipline, dedication etc influenced academic performance of students in public secondary schools in Karemo division.
The study recommended that more funds be set aside by the government to finance free secondary school education, train teachers on guidance and counseling, and ensure gender parity is achieved through implementation of affirmative action, communities be sensitized on the importance of education, and that students embrace discipline that will focus them in realizing their academic goals. Areas that require further study include replicating the same study in public secondary schools in urban areas and establishing how politics influence academic performance of students in public secondary schools, | en_US |
