| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to investigate socio-economic factors influencing pupils
access in public primary schools in flood prone area of Budalangi district Busia County,
Kenya. The study was guided by the following research objectives; parental level of
income, family displacement, distance from home to school and the effect of child labour
on pupils access to primary education. The study adopted Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
Theory. The theory asserts that before considering the higher order psychological needs of
children it is important to understand the basic needs and how to acquire these needs. The
study adopted the descriptive survey research design whose purpose is to describe the state
of affairs and involves a method of collecting data by interviewing or administering
questionnaires to a sample of individuals. The target population consisted of all the public
primary schools in Budalangi district. The whole head teacher (37) population was used for
the study. Random sampling was used to sample 125 teachers and 270 pupils. Field survey
method was adopted to collect data using questionnaires that were in three sets; head
teachers', teachers' and class eight pupils' questionnaires. The questionnaires contained
both open-ended and closed-ended questions. Instrument validity was determined through
expert judgment from university supervisors while the reliability was determined using
internal consistency. The three sets of questionnaire were considered reliable since they had
a high coefficient value of 0.7.
Parental level of income in Budalangi was realized to be below average since most of the
families (41.7%) depend on farming as a source of livelihood. Floods that occur before
harvesting wash away and destroy the crops rendering the families to depend on
wellwishers' aid f-ora living. Maj-ority of the parents (78.3%) cannot afford their children's
basic needs, thus, the children are forced out of school due to lack of learning resources and
to earn a living for themselves. During floods families are displaced as they relocate to
safer grounds. 57.1% of the .children are separated f-or more than one month from their
families leading to absenteeism from school and poor performance of those who attend.
When families are relocated to school facilities like classrooms, school programmes are
.interrupted. Distance from home t-o school .in line with destroyed .infrastructure greatly
hinder pupils inaccessibility to school. The destruction of the transport networks interfere
with the livelihoods of the residents in the flood prone. Majority of the pupils 52.4% and
the teachers 69% fail to attend school during floods. Going t-o schoolis a nightmare for the
pupils who have to wade through flooded fields or board canoes that are dangerously
rowed through the raging river in order to reach schools that are far from their homes. Most
of the pupils (40.S%) indicated that they 1.ive4 over five kilometers from their schools.
Majority of the pupils (61.9%) use boats to go to school during floods, while 73.8% walk
during dry seasons to get to school. Finally, with the rise in the child labour since children
are absent from school-due to Jack of basic needs. PUPHS(97.6%) indicated that they spend
their time fishing during flood rather than schooling, and miss school for more than two
days in a week to engage in flood related activities like fishing. Most of the pupils 52.4%
revealed that they are responsible -of their siblings' upk-eep. The study came up with the
following recommendation; the government should enforce the law on child labour to be
strictly dealt with. Educational activists should organize forums to create community
awareness on the importance of education to learners and its impact on the community as a
whole. The Ministry of Education should facilitate live saving skills workshops to
enlighten the school community on measures to take when faced by floods. | en_US |
