Effects of Socio-Economic Factors on Dropout and Retention Rates in Public Day Secondary Schools in Chepalungu Sub County, Bomet – Kenya

Abstract

Education plays a critical role in promoting economic, social, cultural and political development of individuals, communities, nations and humanities. The Government of Kenya has consequently been allocating substantial resources to the education sector. In fact, the Government has been shouldering tuition fees in all public secondary schools since 2008. Despite these efforts by the Government, there are notable wastage in secondary school education sector probably due to internal inefficient operations in school. The purpose of the study was to establish effects of socio-economic factors on internal efficiency of education in public day secondary schools in Chepalungu Sub County. There was a need to determine the extent to which parental level of education influenced internal efficiency of education, establishment of the extent to which family structure influenced internal efficiency of education, examination of the extent to which parental income levels influenced internal efficiency of education and establishment of the extent to which students‘ engagement in household duties influenced internal efficiency of education. The study adopted educational production theory which asserts that an education process is looked at as where inputs are converted into outputs. This was a descriptive survey study that targeted a population of 327 Class Teachers, 3277 students and 62 principals. A sample of 14 schools, 66 class teachers and 346 students were used. Field survey method was adopted to collect data using questionnaires and document analysis. Data collected was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 21) and presented using tables, frequencies and percentages. The analysis revealed several socio-economic factors influencing internal efficiency in the provision of secondary education in Chepalungu Sub-County. These factors are: parental education levels, family structure, parental income level and student‘s engagement in household duties. The study found out that cases of retention rates are very low due to family instability, low levels of parental education, the structure of the child‘s family and the students‘ engagement in household duties. Absenteeism is also a big challenge being caused by parental attitudes, truancy, and orphan status. Also, most parents in Chepalungu sub-county are depicted to be poor or very poor as most parents are subsistence farmers, small scale business persons or casual workers. Their education level and background is crucial in students‘ progress in education. From the findings of the study the researcher recommends that the impoverished status of the sub-county should be addressed as a matter of urgency by the community with the assistance of the government for the parents to have reliable sources of income to economically support their children in school. There should be a departure from the reliance on formal or salaried employment which at the moment accounts for less than 30% of the total employment. The researcher also recommends further research to be conducted to determine the status of internal efficiency in private secondary schools in Kenya