Socio-economic factors influencing students’ access to secondary school education in Rongo district, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the socio-economic factors influencing students’ access to secondary education in Rongo district. Specifically the study sought to establish the extent to which tuition fees charged influence students access to secondary school education, other objectives were to examine the influence of size of household on students access to secondary school education, to determine the influence of child labour on students access to secondary education and to examine how the level of income of the parents affect students’ access to secondary education. The researcher employed descriptive study design and data presented in form of frequency distribution tables, graphs and pie charts that facilitated description and explanations of the study findings. Target population of 15 secondary schools, 245 teachers, 15 head teachers and 2,500 students in Rongo district. The primary research instruments of this study were questionnaires and interview schedules. Questionnaires for students and teachers and interview schedule for head teachers. The study findings indicate that some of the socio-economic factors that had the highest effects in access of students in secondary school education include size of the family, income of parents, child labour and tuition fee. The study found out that socio-economic factors were major causes of low access of secondary school students in secondary education. Also the findings revealed other home based factors as HIV/AIDS, parental level of education school also affected access of students in secondary school tire.