Influence of school-related gender based violence on girls participation in public secondary schools in Kitui county, Kenya
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate influence of school-related gender based
violence on girls‟ participation in public secondary schools in Kitui County, Kenya.
It was guided by the following research objectives: to examine the extent which
school related gender based violence influence girls‟ retention rates, absenteeism
rates; and enrolment rates in secondary schools. The study adopted the descriptive
survey design and the target population consisted of 188 public secondary schools in
the county, 188 principals, 1275 teachers and 5,137 students. Stratified sampling was
used to select the schools, where the county is divided into three sub-counties and in
each sub-county one secondary school was used in the pilot study. Simple random
sampling was used to select 10% of teachers and students, hence the study sample
was56 principals, 128 teachers and 514 students. Questionnaires were the main data
collection tools. They were administered directly to the respondents to enable the
researcher to clarify the instructions for completion and also to handle any queries
and uncertainties that arose from the respondents. The questionnaires were collected
immediately thereafter. Data analysis sought to provide answers to research
questions and fulfilled research objectives. The study applied both qualitative and
quantitative description methods to process data.The study findings revealed
thatgender based violence in Kitui County influences girls‟ participation in education
from time to time that interfere with retention rate of the girls to a very high extent.
Participation is hindered by gender based violence since absenteeism lowers
participation in education and more so for the girls as they are more vulnerable than
their boys counterparts. Majority of girls who experience gender based violence were
absent from school from time to time, causing a high percentage count for girls
absenteeism in secondary schools. All the principals and teachers believe that there
are probable measures that could be put in place to increase girls‟ participation in
education by down trending gender based violence.The study recommended that the
government should put in place measures to intensify sensitization in the secondary
schools against gender based violence especially through creating awareness for girl
child to elaborately identify different kinds of gender based violence that would
intimidate them silently. Sensitization of the public on the importance of
discouraging gender based violence could increase girls‟ retention in secondary
schools. Bases on the study findings the study proposes a study should be carried
out to investigate the impact of gender inequality among communities in provision of
quality of education.
Publisher
University of Nairobi