Influence Of School Feeding Program On Pupils’ Participation In Public Primary Schools In Masinga Division In Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

The study was to establish the influence of feeding programme on pupils’ participation in public primary schools in Masinga division in Machakos county, Kenya. Five research objectives were used to guide the study. The research objectives sought to assess the influence of school feeding program on enrollment in school feeding program assisted public primary schools in Masinga division; establish the influence of school feeding program on pupils’ attendance in school feeding program assisted public primary schools in Masinga division; establish whether school feeding program contributes to pupils’ class participation in school feeding program assisted public primary schools in Masinga division; analyze the effect of school feeding program on pupils’ performance in school feeding program assisted public primary schools in Masinga division and finally establish the extent to which school feeding program has reduced pupils’ dropout in school feeding program assisted public primary schools in Masinga division. Target population was the 98 feeding programme assisted public primary schools in Masinga division, Machakos county. Out of the 98 public primary schools, 10 were selected where 10 headteachers, 30 teachers and 100 standard eight pupils were sampled. Simple random sampling, purposeful random sampling and stratified random sampling were used. The study used descriptive survey research design. The research instruments used included: questionnaires, focus group discussion and document analysis to solicit information from the respondents. Data from questionnaires were analyzed by help of 12.0 SPSS programme while that of focus group discussion and document analysis were analyzed according to the themes in the study variables. The study findings showed that school feeding progrmme had positive influence on pupils’ enrolment, attendance, class participation and reduced dropout. For instance, from 2008 to 2012 there was a 3 percent increase in overall schools’ enrolment noting that afternoon sessions attendance were better than the morning sessions attendance as some pupils came to take lunch and learned in the afternoon sessions who were absent in the morning sessions. In the light of the study the researcher recommended that the Government provide reliable and steady school feeding programme food to all primary schools in the disadvantaged (ASALS) famine prone areas through home grown school feeding programme, at the beginning of every term by sending money to schools to procure food. The community to take part in providing some of the school feeding programme items by growing vegetables in school gardens/ shambas to provide vegetables to the school feeding programme