Investigation of kenya certificate of primary education Performance in ndeiya division, limuru District , kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

he purpose of the research study was to establish how socio - economic , socio - cultural and school based factors affect the performanc e of candidates in public primary schools at Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in Ndeiya Division, Limuru District, Kiambu County and recommend possible interventions to improve the performance. To achieve the objectives, the views of head teac hers, teachers and pupils who were in standard seven and eight from eight primary schools in Ndeiya Division were sought . The main research question of the study was the causes of poor performance in primary schools in Ndeiya division, Limuru district Kiam bu County . The specific research questions of study we r e ; what are the effects of social economic status of parents to KCPE performance. The second was the effect s of social cultural practices on pupils’ performance while the las t one was how the school ba sed factors affect the pupils’ performance in Ndeiya division . The literature review dealt with social economic factors that relate to pupils performance including pupils home background, parents level of education and income. Social - c ultural factors incl ude parents’ attitude, early ma rriage, b oy’s circumcision and female Genital Mutilation. School related factors were also highlighted including s c hool administration and teaching /learning facilities, pupils’ discipline, m otivation of teachers / students and absenteeism . Time taken from home to school by the students was also reviewed as a factor that contribute to exam performance The aim of the research study was to identify factors that impact negatively on pupil performance and come up with proactive so lutions based on an informed opinion about the underlying issues. The research adopted descriptive research survey design approach. Findings from the research stu dy revealed that social economic, social c ultural and school based factors to a great extent c ontributed to poor performance of students in KCPE exam. Majority of the parents 75.5% had form four as the highest level of education. Parents who had eight years of schooling were found to be 46.8% implying that they would not motivate their children to set high academic goals. The number of parents in professional jobs was found to be insignificant at less than 0.3%. The research study also revealed that the number of parents who regularly checked and assisted their children with assignments was 7.4%. I t was therefore prudent to conclude hat pupils performed poorly because they lacked strong family support structures and parental modeling since most of the parents had low level achievements in education standards. The research study also revealed that m ajority of the parents 54% were peasant farmers and usually employed the services of pupils in farm duties such as feeding livestock, milking and general farming duties. Pupils were therefore distracted from their studies which affected their performances. The research study findings revealed that alongside peasant farming, a significant number of the parents 30 % engaged in small scale business. What was significant in the research study was that boys out - performed girls by a margin of more than 27 mark s. This can be explained by the fact that the education level of fathers was significantly higher than that of mothers. The researcher was also able to establish that HIV&AIDS, family instability, divorce and sepa rations and drug abuse significantly contri buted to poor performance in Ndeiya division . The s chool based factors that contributed to poor performance included school administration and teaching/learning facilities, pupils discipline, motivation of pupils and teachers , absenteeism, repetition of pupils and time taken to walk to school from home. Other factors that came up during the research includes; lack of school feeding Programme for pupils who were forced to learn hungry and testing policies were also sighted as being responsible for poor pe rformance. The conclusion of the researcher was that all stake holders need to work together towards changing parental attitudes, create awareness and support to improve performance in Ndeiya division