| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to investigate the school based factors
influencing completion of education among public secondary school students.
The objectives were to establish how teaching and learning resources,
principals’ administrative experience, availability of teachers and school
curriculum influence completion of education among public secondary
students. This study was guided by choice theory developed by William
Glasser in the year 1998. The study targeted 1,860 students, 279 teachers and
31 principals and 31 public secondary schools in Mukurwe-ini District. The
researcher used stratified random sampling to select 14 public secondary
schools in order to ensure that all the categories (mixed gender, boys only,
girls only, day and boarding schools) were included in the study. Census
sampling was used to select 14 principals while random sampling was used to
select 28 teachers and 182 form 1-4 students. Four students were selected
from form 4 class, while the other 9 were selected from form 1-3 classes.
Three students were selected from each class. The total sample size was 238
respondents. Questionnaires used for teachers with coefficient of 0.75 while
that of students with coefficient of 0.78 and the interview schedule for the
principal with coefficient of 0.72 were used for data collection. Reliability
analysis was done through doing a test-retest method to student questionnaire
and teachers’ questionnaire using Pearson’s Product Moment’s Correlation
was used to test reliability. Validity was ensured through discussion with the
experts who included supervisors and colleagues. Primary data was collected
and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods and then presented in
tables and graphs. Data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings were; availability of teaching and
learning resources and school infrastructure influences students’ completion,
books, size of the classes and recreational facilities, chairs influences students
completion rate. Students fail to complete their education due to inadequate
classrooms. The teaching and learning resources influence completion rate of
students to a greater extent. Principal administrative experience influence
completion of education among public secondary school students to a great
extent negatively. The study on the influence of the availability of teachers on
students’ completion indicated that teacher’s availability influences
completion rate of students to a great extent negatively. The inadequate
number of teachers influences the completion rate of the students. The study
found out that school curriculum influences completion rate of students to a
greater extent negatively. The curriculum sets high expectations for students
leading to students’ incompletion. Students are frustrated with the overloaded
curriculum. This study can be replicated in other districts in order to give a
reflection of the whole country on school-based factors contributing to
students’ in-completion of their education. This will ensure better decision
making on ways curbing this problem. There should be study to determine the
extent to which principals administrative experience influence on learner’s
completion of secondary education. The curriculum developers should revise
the curriculum to be manageable by students. The constant changing of the
curriculum should be avoided to ensure stability in its implementation. | en_US |
