| dc.description.abstract | Kenya government has noted that there is internal inefficiency especially in the
primary section despite heavy investment in the primary education. The district was
witnessing problems of declining gross enrolment rates, high wastage as a result of
absenteeism, repetition and dropout rates. This has triggered debate over the causes of
internal inefficiency. Thus there is need to investigate home based factors influencing
internal efficiency in public primary schools. Therefore this study has investigated on
the factors that influence internal efficiency in public primary schools in Gucha
District. The objectives of the study were to establish whether household duties and
child labour influence pupils’ performance in primary examinations, to determine how
parents’ level of education influence pupils’ completion rate, to assess whether family
structure and stability influence pupils’ absenteeism in primary schools and to
establish the influence of family level of income on pupils’ dropout and access to
primary education. The study used the descriptive survey design and purposive
sampling techniques to select the schools and simple random sampling used to select
class teachers and pupils involved in the study. A total of 12 public primary schools
were selected for the study. The researcher used all the 12 head teachers from the 12
selected public primary schools, 2 class teachers in each school making a total of 24
class teachers and 12 pupils from each school making a total of 144 pupils.
The researcher used the research instruments that were two different questionnaires for
teachers (head teachers and class teachers) and pupils. Two schools were randomly
selected for the pilot study. The researcher used the test re-test method which required
only one testing session to determine the reliability of the instruments. Data was
analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSSL) program and presented
in tables, frequencies, percentages and charts. The analysis revealed several home
based factors influencing internal efficiency in the provision of primary education in
Gucha District. These factors are parental poverty levels, parental level of education,
family structure and stability and household duties and child labor. The study found
out that case of dropouts, absenteeism, repetition and poor performance are common
in the district. The study found out that case of dropouts, absenteeism, repetition and
poor performance are common in the district. Based on the findings the researcher
recommended that the minister of education should enforce law against repetition to
allow smooth transition, there is need to sensitize the community on the importance of
education so that parents can develop positive attitudes towards education in order to
send their children to school and poverty alleviation measures to be established in the
society so as to enable more families get higher income. The suggestions for the study
include; the need to replicate this study in other districts of the country, to carry out a
similar study in private primary schools so as to scrutinize their internal efficiency and
finally a similar study should be conducted incorporating parents and SMC members
since they are determinants of a school’s internal efficiency. | en |
