Factors contributing to drop out of female students from secondry schools in Awendo division

Abstract

Development of a country depends entirely on education of its citizens. Most African countries suffer from many consequences of ignorance due to lack of education. Although many African children go to school, a small fraction of them manage to complete their education cycle at both primary and secondary levels. The Kenyan government spends a greater percentage of national resources on education, but the drop out of girls from education is significantly high. In Awendo Division, the drop out was shown from the female students enrolled in form one and those who complete from four at the end of the four year cycle. In the year 2000, there were 394 female students who enrolled in form but out of this number only 242 completed form four in the year 201)1 Tn 20(H, a total of 478 were enrolled in form one but only 282 completed form four in the year 2004, in the year 2002, a total of 503 were enrolled in form one but only 309 completed form four in the year 2005, and in the year 2003, a total sf413 were enrolled in form one but only 265 completed form four in 2006. It was this fact which drove me into finding out factors contributing to drop out of female -students from secondary schools in Awendo Division, in Migori District. The research study was conducted in Awendo Division in Migori District of Nyanza Province. The sample size selected for this study included head teachers and students of nine secondary schools in the Division. Simple random sampling method was used to select 106 students and 9 head teachers who participated in the study. Data was collected using questionnaires. Descriptive statistics method was used to present and analyze data Information from data analysis was presented in the form of frequency tables, percentages, pie charts and bar graphs. Only female students from form four were used as participants for the study because they had stayed in the school all the way from form one to form four. The findings of the study revealed that factors contributing to drop out of female secondary school students were early marriages, pregnancies, poverty, attitudes of parents, child labour, roles in the family and initiations Recommendations made on how to curb this drop out problem included giving more bursary to needy students, allowing girls who drop out to come back to school to continue with education, formulating policies to create more boarding facilities for girls, educating girls on sex education, initiating community based self-help projects to raise for education, and making policies to curb early marriages.