Factors influencing female students enrollment in technical courses: a case of Matili technical training institute, Kenya
Abstract
Career patterns are influenced by a variety of forces, one of which is
gender-role Stereotype. The study determined the factors influencing female
students‟ enrollment in technical courses. The study was guided by the
following objectives: to determine the influence of financial factors on students
enrollment, to investigate the influence of cultural factors on female students
enrollment on technical courses and to examine the effect of sociological
factors and role models on female students‟ enrollment in technical courses. The
study adopted case study research design .The study employed the Krejcie and
Morgan formulae and a sample size of 219 was used. The data collection
instruments consisted of the questionnaire and the interview schedule. Piloting
was done to establish the reliability of the research instruments by use of half
split technique where questionnaires were administered to students of the
neighboring institute, Kisiwa Technical. In this study multiple regressions were
used to analyze data and the findings were presented using APA tables. The
study provided valuable insights on factors influencing female students‟
enrollment in technical training institutes in Kenya generally. It was found that
cultural factors such early marriages, female genital mutilation, cultural beliefs
and time spent on doing house hold chores make girl to have little time to
devote to their academic work. It was also noted that financial factors such the
fees paid for the technical courses and expensive learning materials and books
made parents to discourage their daughters on choosing the technical courses.
The girls are also not informed about possible future salaries and their abilities
and are therefore not motivated to choose technical courses. Psychological
factors also influenced the enrollment. The findings show that majority of the
respondents indicated that technical courses are masculine and are meant to be
pursued by boys. The study also indicated that girls perform equally well on
many technical skills and attitudes assessment in the elementary school years
and what they need is role models to encourage them to pursue the technical
courses in their tertiary education programmes. It is hoped that the findings of
this study will help the ministry of education to come up with ways of
encouraging female students to enroll into technical training institutes and that
the college administration and other education stakeholders will provide more
bursary information to female students to enable them enroll in technical
training institutes.
Citation
Department of Extramural Studies,Publisher
University of Nairobi
Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5964]