Effects of government policies on refugee pupils’ access to primary education in kamukunji district, nairobi county kenya
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Date
2014-08Author
Gitau, Rachel Mweru
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of government policies
on refugee access to Primary Education, in Kamukunji District, Nairobi
County. Specifically the study examined how free primary education, policy
on examination registration and policy on recognition of foreign education
affected access to primary education by refugee pupils. The study employed a
descriptive survey research design. The target population for this study
comprised of 17 head teachers from public primary schools with refugee
children, 351 teachers from the schools and 3,500 pupils from public primary
schools in Kamukunji District. Using The Central Limit Theorem, the
researcher sampled 5 primary schools, of targeted 17 schools . 7 head
teachers, 40 t4achers and 351 refugee pupils were sampled for the study , thi
was 11.5% 0f the target population. The study utilized questionnaires for head
teachers, teachers and refugee pupil. Cronbach’s Alpha method was used to
estimate the reliability of the questionnaires. A correlation coefficient of 0.74
was obtained for the teacher’s questionnaires and 0.72 for head teachers’and
0.71 for pupils questionnaires. Data from the field was collected, cleaned,
coded and recorded. The responses to the items in the instruments were
cleaned and assigned codes and labels. Frequency counts of the responses
were then obtained to generate descriptive information about the respondents
and to illustrate the general trend of findings on the various variables that were
under investigation. The collected data was analyzed qualitatively along the
specific objectives and the basic quantitative data was analyzed using
percentages. The findings of the study were presented using tables and charts
since summarized large quantities of data whilst making the report reader
friendly. The study established that FPE policy guidelines were not clear on
the refugees’ pupils, education policies did not adequately cover the refugees’
children and that most of the refugees in Kamukunji District are in Kenya
without proper documentation. It also established that the refugees’ pupils
have undergone a different education system than the Kenyan education
system and therefore, the certification system of the country of origin is totally
different. It was found to be difficult to establish exactly the level a child was,
before he or she left school and that language barriers hinders education and
learning opportunities to the refugees. The study recommends that the
government should formulate policies improve FPE to allow easy access of
education by refugee pupils, make examination policy more flexible for
refugee pupils and recognize foreign documentation such as academic reports
and mark sheets for easy transfer.
Subject
Government policiesCollections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5979]