Effects of indiscipline on pupils' performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in public primary schools in Naaivasha Central Zone, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of indiscipline on pupils’ performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination in public primary schools in Naivasha Central Zone, Kenya. The objectives were to examine the influence of absenteeism, truancy, pupils’ coupling as well as bullying on pupils performance in KCPE examination. The research design was descriptive survey. The sample consisted of 13 headteachers sampled by census and 13 HOD - Guidance and Counselling, while random sampling was used to select 20 percent of teachers giving 52 teachers (4 per school) and 10 percent of pupils giving 127 pupils giving a total of 205 respondents. The research instrument used was a questionnaire. To validate the research instruments supervisors read through to provide expert judgment, as test retest technique was used to test the reliability. The correlation coefficient for head teachers’ questionnaire was 0.87,and for HODs-Guidance and Counseling’s questionnaire was 0.79, for teachers’ questionnaire was 0.91 while that of the pupils’ was 0.76 and hence considered reliable for collecting. Quantitative was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings from the study most of the schools generally have incidences of indiscipline such as absenteeism, truancy, coupling and bullying which affected pupils’ KCPE examination performance. The researcher therefore recommends that guidance and counseling programs, being the most preffered effective mode of dealing with indiscipline in schools, should be enhanced