Factors influencing access and participation of refugee girls in primary education in Eastleigh, Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

This research sought to establish the factors that influence the access and participation of refugee girls in primary education in Eastleigh. The study investigated the school, the family and the individual factors affecting refugee girls’ education. The study was guided by Socio-cultural theory of education. The school, family and individual factors were the independent variables while access and participation was the dependent variable. The study used descriptive survey design. The target population of the study was the refugee girls, primary school teachers and IRC officials. The researcher used purposive and simple random sampling to select 75 teachers, 126 girls and 10 IRC officers as the sample. Data was collected using questionnaires for teachers, focus discussion groups for the girls and interview schedules for head teachers. The study adopted content validity which was tested by review of the instruments by the supervisor and other lectuters from the department of education administration and planning of University of Nairobi. The reliability of research instruments was tested by determining the internal consistency of the items. A pilot study was carried out and the results used to calculate the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. A cronbach’s alpha value of 0.7 was used as the minimum recommended consistency. The teachers’ questionnaires were found to have an alpha value of 0.82 thus they were used without alteration. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages and presented in tables and charts while qualitative data was analysed thematically as per the objectives. The study established that the family factors that influenced access and participation of refugee girls to education negatively were: retrogressive culture, lack of support from parents, unconducive home environment, gender roles and household chores. The school factors that had negative influence were: use English language for instruction, lack of facilities and instructional materials, lack of refugee integration services in the schools. The individual factors were: poor mastery of English language, negative attitude of the girls towards education, embracing of retrogressive cultures by the girls, and post conflict trauma among the girls. The researcher recommended awareness programmes and special services programmes for teaching language and integration services to be offered to the girls.