Investigation of kenya certificate of primary education Performance in ndeiya division, limuru District , kiambu County, Kenya
Abstract
he purpose of the research study was
to establish
how
socio
-
economic
,
socio
-
cultural
and
school based factors affect the performanc
e of candidates in public primary schools
at Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in Ndeiya Division, Limuru District,
Kiambu County
and recommend possible interventions to improve the performance.
To
achieve the objectives, the views of head teac
hers, teachers and pupils who were in
standard seven and eight from eight primary schools in Ndeiya Division were sought
.
The main research question of the study was the causes of poor performance in primary
schools in Ndeiya
division, Limuru
district Kiam
bu
County
.
The specific research
questions of study we
r
e
;
what are the effects of social economic status of parents to
KCPE
performance. The
second was the effect
s of social cultural practices on pupils’
performance while the las
t one was how the school ba
sed
factors affect the pupils’
performance
in Ndeiya division
.
The literature review
dealt with social economic factors that relate to pupils performance
including pupils home background,
parents level of education and income.
Social
-
c
ultural factors incl
ude
parents’
attitude,
early ma
rriage,
b
oy’s
circumcision and female
Genital Mutilation.
School related factors were also highlighted including s
c
hool
administration and teaching /learning facilities,
pupils’
discipline,
m
otivation of
teachers
/
students
and
absenteeism
. Time taken
from
home to
school
by the students
was
also reviewed as a
factor that contribute to
exam
performance
The aim of the research study was to identify factors that impact negatively on pupil
performance and come up with proactive so
lutions based on an informed opinion about
the underlying issues.
The research adopted descriptive
research survey design approach.
Findings from the research stu
dy revealed that social economic,
social c
ultural and
school based factors
to a great extent c
ontributed to poor performance of students in
KCPE exam. Majority of the parents 75.5% had form four as the highest level of
education. Parents who had eight years of schooling were found to be 46.8% implying
that they would not motivate their children to
set high academic goals.
The number of
parents in professional jobs was found to be insignificant at less than 0.3%.
The research study also revealed that the number of parents who regularly checked and
assisted their children with assignments was 7.4%. I
t was therefore prudent to conclude hat pupils performed poorly because they lacked strong family support structures and
parental
modeling
since most of the parents had low level achievements in education
standards. The research study also revealed
that m
ajority of the parents
54% were
peasant farmers and usually employed the services of pupils in farm duties such as
feeding livestock, milking and general farming duties. Pupils were therefore distracted
from their studies which affected their performances.
The research study
findings revealed that alongside peasant farming, a significant
number of the parents 30 % engaged in small scale business. What was significant in the
research study was that boys out
-
performed girls by a margin of more than 27 mark
s.
This can be explained by the fact that the education level of fathers was significantly
higher than that of mothers. The researcher was also able to establish that
HIV&AIDS,
family instability, divorce and sepa
rations and drug abuse
significantly
contri
buted to
poor performance
in Ndeiya division
.
The s
chool
based factors
that contributed to poor performance included
school
administration and teaching/learning
facilities, pupils
discipline, motivation
of pupils
and
teachers
,
absenteeism, repetition
of
pupils and time taken to walk to school from
home.
Other factors that came up during the research includes;
lack of school feeding
Programme
for pupils
who were forced to learn hungry and testing policies
were also
sighted as being responsible for poor pe
rformance.
The conclusion of the researcher was that all stake holders need to work together
towards changing parental attitudes, create awareness and support to improve
performance
in Ndeiya division
Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5979]