| dc.description.abstract | Studies that have targeted creating children’ rights awareness have placed a lot of
emphasis on the influence of children’ rights awareness on various stakeholders at the
expense of the effects attributed to various aspects of a child’ or student’ life. The
purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of children rights awareness on
students’ performance in Gatundu North District, Kiambu County, Kenya. Four
research questions guided the researcher namely: to what extent is there children rights
awareness among secondary schools; which are the commonly violated children's
rights in secondary schools; what is the influence of children’ rights awareness on
students’ behaviour and academic performance in secondary schools; and what ways
can enhance children’ rights awareness in secondary schools in Gatundu North
District, Kiambu County. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design to
carry out the study.
The study targeted 31 secondary schools, 31 principals of schools, 620 teachers and
12,400 students. The study had a sample size of 124 students, 62 teachers, 9 principals
a D.E.O and DQASO. This gave a total sample of 197 respondents. A total of 108
students, 50 teachers, 8 principals, a D.E.O and a DQASO participated in the study.
Schools were stratified as either private or public secondary schools. Systematic
random sampling was used to sample out the students and the teachers. Purposive
sampling was used to sample out the principals, DQASO and D.E.O. The data
collection instruments used included questionnaire for teachers and students and an
interview guide for the principals, DQASO and DEO. Document analysis was used to
gather data on students’ academic performance. Data was analyzed using SPSS
Version 16 Computer Package and excel and presented using frequency tables and
percentages. From the analysis the study found out the following: there is child rights
awareness among various stakeholders in secondary schools though the awareness
level varies from each group. Children rights are observed and exercised in all
secondary schools in the district. The main sources of information on children rights
among students include the school, television, radio, newspapers and magazines. The
documents that advocate for child rights like the universal declaration of human rights
and the child rights convention were considered alien to the students. There is
violation of children rights in some schools though this was disputed greatly by
teachers. Students’ discipline is positively or negatively influenced by awareness of
child rights among students in schools. Teachers do not believe that awareness of
children rights has an influence on academic performance of the students. Most
schools in the district attained a mean grade of D plain in KCSE. Ways of enhancing
child rights awareness were established to be fourfold; those that address initiatives at
a student’ level, school level, community level and at the government level. In order to
enhance children’ rights awareness in there is need for teachers to change their attitude
and all stakeholders in school should team up for the success of the initiative. | en |
