Factors affecting motivation and academic aspirations of Girls and Boys in secondary schools: Laikipia West district, Laikipia County,Kenya

Abstract

The gap in gender enrolment and academic performance between boys and girls in secondary schools has been widening in the society. Girls and boys face challenges in their academic work which affects their self esteem, academic self concept and motivation. This study sought to find out the effects of motivation in girls' and boys' academic performance at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination in Laikipia West district in Laikipia County. The study adopted a survey research design. The population included 5206 students in the 18 public secondary schools. A random sample of 349 students (including 194 boys and 155 girls) and 18 school principals was drawn from 18 schools. Data was collected using two sets of self-structured questionnaires (one for students and another for school principals). The questionnaires were pilot-tested to validate and determine their reliability. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 for Windows. The study findings indicate that there was a difference in motivation among students across the age categories, order of birth and gender of the student. There was no difference in motivation among students across availability of learning resources, teacher attitude towards students and participation in co-curricular activities. However, there was a relationship between the school types and guidance and counselling and motivation of the students. There was no difference in the level of motivation towards learning and community views on education, effect of menstrual period on girls' education and effect of parental preference of early marriages of daughters among the respondents. The study recommends that there is a need to include more school factors beyond what was included in this study so as to identify other factors that may have more influence on student motivation.