| dc.description.abstract | Even though the government has made great efforts to improve gender differences in education, in most areas, boys still perform better than girls. This may be attributed to factors like the differences in the way boys and girls' learn their attitudes, culture, and higher value of education to boys than girls' among others. Many researchers have established the factors influencing gender disparities in KCPE performance in Kenya but in Tetu Constituency, no such study has been established. The researcher therefore sought to fill this research gap by establishing the factors influencing gender disparities in KCPE performance in Tetu Constituency.
This was a descriptive study which used survey design and was guided by the following objectives: To establish how social cultural factors influence girl child performance in KCPE Tetu Constituency; to determine how economic factors influence girl child performance in KCPE performance in Tetu Constituency; to find out how role models influence girl child performance in KCPE performance in Tetu Constituency; and to establish how media has influenced girl child performance in KCPE performance in Tetu Constituency.
The population of the study was the public primary schools in Tetu Constituency. Random sampling was used to select respondents. The study used questionnaires as the instruments of data collection. The collected data was analysed through descriptive statistics and the results presented in tables. The four main factors of the study showed that they affect girls' academic performance to a different extent. The main findings of this study showed that social cultural factors such as, gender biasness, girls' attitude towards school, parents and teachers' attitude were mostly quoted to cause poor performance among girls'.
The economic factors which affected girls' academic performance mostly were poverty, parents' academic level and parents' occupation. As far as role models are concerned, female teachers were found to be good role models to girls' because they believe in them and they pushed them to perform better. However, most parents are failing the girls' because most of them have negative attitude towards education hence can not serve as good role models. Finally, media affects girls' academic performance because it influences the way girls' view their education capabilities.
The findings of the study, recommends that school administration involves parents more in girls' education. Secondly, there should be sensitization of parents especially on how they affect the academic performance of the girl child. This would help them change their negative attitude towards girls' education and this would lead to better education performance among girls'.
This study is hoped to help the government since it has contributed to the research information on girls' academic performance and the Ministry of Education can therefore understand more about gender disparities in KCPE performance. The knowledge will also help in the formulation of policies which eliminates gender disparities in academic performance. Finally, the findings of the study will help teachers understand that they have a role to play to ensure that all the students performance well in education. | en_US |
