| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors influencing pupils’ access
to primary school education in flood prone areas of Ijara district, Kenya. Three
research objectives were formulated to guide the study. They were:- to establish
the learner related factors that influenced pupils’ access to primary school
education; to examine the infrastructural related factors that influenced pupils’
access to primary school education and to examine the infrastructural related
factors that influenced pupils’ access to primary school education. The study was
conducted using descriptive survey. The target population of the study comprised
of 9 headteachers, 90 teachers and 3,665 pupils. The sample for the study was 9
headteachers, 73 teachers and 347 pupils. Data was collected using
questionnaires, focus group discussions and observation schedules. Descriptive
statistics were used to analyse quantitative data while qualitative data was
analyzed thematically according to the objectives. The findings revealed that:
younger children in classes 1-4 were most challenged in accessing school during
floods; and illness related to floods was a factor that influenced pupils’ access to
primary school education in flood prone areas of Ijara district. There were higher
rates of absenteeism among girls compared to boys during floods. The
infrastructural related factors that influenced pupils’ access to primary school
education were: damage to and flooding of classrooms; flooding and collapsing of
school toilets; flooding of playgrounds; and damage of access roads. It also
revealed that: settlement patterns; the flat topography of the area; and the long
distances to school were the contextual related factors that influenced pupils’
access to primary school education. Based on the findings of the study, it was
concluded that health, age and gender were the learner related factors that
influenced pupils’ access to primary school education. It was also concluded that:
damage to and flooding of classrooms; damage and flooding of toilets; flooding of
playgrounds; and damage of access roads were the infrastructural related factors
that influenced pupils’ access to primary school education. The study also
concluded that: settlement patterns; the flat topography of the area; and the long
distances to school were the contextual related factors that influenced pupils’
access to primary school education. The recommendations made were: school
management committees should engage qualified professionals to assess the
structural safety of damaged school buildings; building codes and standards for
schools should be applied in designing construction and maintenance of
classrooms and toilets to ensure their resilience in the face of known disasters;
schools should develop and implement disaster management plans; the
community leaders should mobilise their members to participate in construction
and maintenance of roads; the Ministry of Special Programmes should sensitize
the communities in the area of disaster risk reduction through activities such as
digging of trenches around the school compounds to minimize flooding.
Suggestions for further studies are:-to investigate the factors influencing access to
secondary school education; to investigate flood disaster risk reduction and to
establish the influence of floods on academic performance in primary schools in
flood prone areas of Ijara district. | en |
