Factors that contribute to drop out among girls in public schools in Olokurto division of Narok district,Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that contribute to drop out among girls in public primary schools in Olokurto division of Narok District. Five research questions were formulated to guide the study. Research question one examined cultural factors that contribute to drop out among girls in primary schools in Olokurto Division of Narok District. Research question two sought to find out the home factors that contributed to drop out. Research question three aimed at establishing school factors that influenced drop out of girls in the division. Research question four aimed at investigating the extent to which parental level of education contributed to drop out among girls in the division while research question five aimed at finding out socio-economic factors that contributed to drop out of girls in the division. The study was carried out in Olokurto Division in Narok District which has 39 public primary schools. The study employed descriptive research design. It used simple random sampling by ballot to sample 10 schools, purposive random sampling to select 50 upper primary class teachers and systematic random sampling to select 200 pupils, All the headteachers of the 10 schools were automatically involved in the study. Data was gathered by use of questionnaires for teachers and pupils and interview schedule for headteachers and document analysis. Finding revealed that socio cultural factors and practices contributed to drop out among girls. These included FGM as reported by 65.2% teachers, early marriages as reported by 76% of the pupils, gender stereotypes as reported by 43.5 of teachers, cultural beliefs and cultural factors, community perception of girls towards education and parental preference for education of boys as reported by 65.2% teachers and 20.8% of pupils. It was also revealed that school based factors such as poor performance as reported by 76.1 % of teachers, peer pressure, understaffing, »*equate resources, distance from school as reported by 44.8% of pupils respondent, bullying by boys, lack of motivation among girls, poor teacher pupil relationships, lack of enough text books contributed to drop out of girls. The findings also revealed that parental factors such as lack of role models at home, inability of parents to prioritize resources, lack of interest in education by parents as reported by 58.7% teachers, parental level of education, ignorance among the parents contributed to drop out among girls as reported by 58.7 pupils. Finally socio economic factors such as children involvement in parental economic activities, poverty as reported by 37% teachers and 82.7 pupils, and child labour contributed to drop out of girls. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that socio cultural factors, school based factors parental and home factors and socio economic factors contributed to drop out of girls. In the light of the research findings it was recommended that the community, parents and girls should be sensitized on the importance of education. It was also recommended that the Government should come up with measures to curb practices that contribute to dropout among girls. It was also recommended that the government should through bursary construct boarding schools for girls so as to save them from early marriages. The researcher suggested that a study on the role of Guidance and counseling in curbing girls school drop out should be conducted and another study on the effect of government policy of education of girls on girls participation in schools should also be conducted.