| dc.description.abstract | The study was on factors influencing transition of pupils’ from primary to secondary schools in Meru central district in Kenya. Education is a fundamental human right because it empowers individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to increase production and income, as well as enabling individuals take advantage of employment opportunities in order to reduce poverty. It is one of the smartest economic and human development investments that any country can make. Secondary education plays a vital role in ensuring a country’s development through training, as pre-requisites to economic growth and Social development. Transition from one level of education to another has been affected by various factors which include academic performance at the end of each grade, education level of parents, tuition fees charged by secondary schools when joining form one and availability of vacancies in the next level. Secondary school enrollments in Sub-Saharan Africa continued to be the lowest in the world. The study wanted to find out why the secondary school enrollments do not match the primary school enrollments.
The study was guided by the following objectives; to establish how academic performance of pupils’ at Kenya certificate of primary education (K.C.P.E), influences transition from primary to secondary schools ,to determine the relationship between education level of parents and transition of pupils’ from primary to secondary schools, to establish how tuition fees charged students’ when joining form one affects transition of pupils’ from primary to secondary schools and to determine how availability of form one vacancies in secondary schools, affects transition of pupils’ from primary to secondary schools in Meru central district. The second chapter looked at literature review on how those variables have influenced transition in other parts of the world, theoretical framework and conceptual framework. The study was based on systems theory that was originally proposed by a biologist Ludwing von Bertalanffy in in
1928who said that a system is a self- contained unit, and a part of a wider higher order, and is organized in a series such that the output of one, is the input for another subsystem, therefore, alteration of part requires alterations in other sub- subsystems.
The study used descriptive survey design because it administered questionnaires and interviewed people. It targeted 25 schools and 25 members of school committees in the district. Questionnaires were issued and interview schedules conducted with school committees and data was analyzed using spss. Chapter four looked at data analysis and used tables and charts, to present information. The study concluded that the district was performing poorly in KCPE, education level of parents was affecting transition, tuition fees was hindering students transition to secondary schools and limited vacancies in secondary schools was influencing transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools in the district. The study made recommendations that should be put in place in order to improve transition levels in the district that government should provide qualified teaching personnel to meet the needs of learners in order to improve KCPE performance, District Education office should come up with practical
measures to sensitize the parents on the importance of education in order to change their attitudes and efforts should be made to ensure even distribution of secondary schools with relevant and adequate infrastructures. | en |
