Factors militating against educational advancement of secondary school students in Kenya: A gender perspective

Abstract

There is ample evidence that girls have lower educational and occupational aspirations compared to their male counterparts Dixon (1958) Turner, (1964) Pavalko, 1971, Chivore (1986) and Kibera (1993). The main objective of the research was to establish the relative magnitude of the effects of the factors that are known to militate against the education of girls. The factors investigated comprised, prelevance of pregnancies, drug addiction, lack of school fees, lack of parental guidance, lack of interest in school work, intimate boy/girl relationship, forced early marriages, cultural beliefs that do not value education girls as that of boys, too much pocket moneyfrom parents, discouragement from teachers and fear of being in the same schools with boys. The pertinent results have shown that girls have low educational and occupational aspirations and that the greatest hindrance to their educational advancement is perceived to be pregnancy, followed by peer pressure, lack of school fees, lack of parental guidance, drug addiction and intimate boy/girl relationship.