Analysis of gender equity in secondary schools in Mandera East District, Mandera county, Kenya

Abstract

Gender equity in education has been subject of discussion in many countries for a long time. The Kenyan Government has put numerous efforts to achieve gender equity in education including the introduction of Free Tuition Secondary Education. Despite this, there seems to exist disparities in some regions especially the arid and semi-arid areas and amongst. Mandera East District is an arid district that has been greatly affected by gender disparities in education. Since the introduction of Free Day secondary Education in 2008, no study has been done to establish the gender parity in education in this region. This study analyzed the gender equity in secondary schools in Mandera East District Mandera County. The study was guided by the following objectives: determining the trends in gender parity in performance; determining the trends in gender parity in completion rates and gender parity in transition rates from primary to secondary schools. The independent variable was the gender equity measures while the dependent variables were the completion rates, transition rates and performance. The study used descriptive survey design. The target population for this study was the secondary schools, 11 principals, 148 teachers and 3323 students in Mandera East District. The researcher used both stratified sampling and simple random sampling. The study used questionnaires, interview guides and document analysis for data collection. The reliability of the instruments was tested using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The questionnaires were found to have a Cronbach's alpha of 0.78 and 0.86 for students and teachers respectively. The validity was established by review of the instruments by experts in the department. Data collected was analyzed using both qualitative and descriptive methods such as frequencies and percentages and presented in tables and figures. The results showed that there were gender disparities in performance with girls being disadvantaged; gender disparities in completion rates with girls showing lower completion rates and disparities in transition rates from primary to secondary schools in which girls were having significantly lower transition rates for the years 2006-2012. The researcher recommended enforcement of law on early marriage for girls, construction of more girls boarding schools and payment of total school fees for the girls including boarding fees by the government.