Factors influencing girl student drop-out rate in mixed public secondary schools in Murang’a county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors influencing girl child drop-out in mixed public secondary schools in Kandara Sub-County in Murang’a County. The objective of this study was to examine family based factors, school environment factors, personal factors as well as to verify the influence of teacher attitude on girl child drop-out rate in Mixed public secondary schools in Kandara Sub-County, Murang’a County. The significance of the study is that it will help the government in formulation of policy and programme interventions aimed at helping the girl child, by making the said policies and programmes as proactive as possible to the needs of the girl child. The study used of both qualitative and quantitative data. The study was delimited in Kandara Sub-County in Murang’a County. The study was further delimited to family factors, environmental factors and personal factors that influence girl-child school drop-out rate. The study was also delimited to only mixed public secondary schools from a total of 1,146 Form four students and 186 teachers. The study was constrained by insufficient finances since it entailed assistance of research assistants at the data collection point. It was also limited by time. However, the use of questionnaire helped in gathering a lot of information within a short time. Lastly adequate sources of information and sourcing of data from staff and management was not easy as some people had issues with confidentiality but this was dealt with by first seeking a good rapport with the respondents and booking appointments early prior to the study. of Secondary data has been used by reviewing the existing literature on the factors influencing girl child drop-out in schools. The study used descriptive survey design, this is because the researcher would not be able to manipulate the variables for the simple reason that they had already occurred. The study population was fourteen mixed public secondary schools in Kandara Sub-County which had a total of 1,146 Form four students and 186 teachers including the principals (Head teachers) according to statistics given by education officer in Kandara Sub-County (August, 2014). The study utilized a sample size of 297 respondents. The selection of 16 form four students and 5 teachers from each school was done through stratified random sampling while simple random sampling was done for Kangui Secondary. The researcher got the list of all form students and assigned them numbers, after which the numbers were placed in a container and picked at random. The subject corresponding to the number picked was included in the sample. On the other hand head teachers were chosen purposefully in order to provide in depth information concerning the variables understudy. Questionnaires with structured and semi-structured questions were used to collect the data. Descriptive survey design was chosen, this is because the researcher would not be able to manipulate the variables for the simple reason that they had already occurred. The finding shows that the factors on examination were positively related to girls drop out of school.the factors identified were school based factors, home based factors, personal based factors and social cultural factors. The study findings are expected to enable educationists and policy makers come up with strategies for helping the girl child. Schools will also benefit in that they will come up with programmes to support the girl child and keep her in school, parents and guardians will benefit by becoming knowledgeable and help keep girls in school till completion.The study recommends that county government recognize that the social return to female education greatly exceeds those of male education. The study also recommends that every school should be mandated to organize general parent meetings to enable the parents to meet teachers and discuss problem affecting their girls education. These parents should be advised on the need to motivate their girl child to remain in school