Influence of school environment on pupils academic performance in public primary schools in Bungoma south subcounty Kenya.

Abstract

This study endeavored to explore how the school based factors influence academic performance in Public primary schools in Bungoma South Sub County. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of school environment on pupils’ academic performance in public primary schools in Bungoma South Sub County. The key objectives that guided the study were: To examine how teacher qualification influences pupils academic performance; To establish the extent to which pupil teacher ratio influences pupils’ academic performance; To determine how adequacy of physical facilities available influence pupils academic performance and to examine how the adequacy of teaching /learning resources available influence pupils academic performance in public primary schools in Bungoma South Sub County. The sample size was 30% of the entire population as suggested by Mugenda & Mugenda (2003) a sample of 30% is appropriate for descriptive studies. The study had a total of 4500 pupils in the 10 Primary Schools. The sample size of the pupils was therefore 30% of 4500 which is 1350 pupils and for 600 teachers it was 180. Piloting was done on a small representative sample of 5 schools to ascertain the feasibility of the study. The validity of the questionnaire and interview schedules was tested to ensure that they measured what they were supposed to measure. Reliability of the questionnaire and interview scheduled was determined using split half technique .The research adopted a descriptive research design. Systematic random sampling was used to select a sample. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data. The data collected was analyzed using percentages, frequencies, tables and spearman correlation. Data was presented using tables. On teacher qualification 80% of pupils observed that most of the teachers were qualified and trained at 68%. The findings show that academic performance in most of the schools has been decreasing at 55 %. For pupil teacher ratio 45 % had above 1:40 of PTR. .On adequacy of physical facilities 32 % of the schools had inadequate classes and 41% had inadequate desks. The study revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between adequate teaching/learning resources and academic performance for pupils (p<0.050). The researcher recommends that the government should employ more qualified teachers and provide adequate teaching /learning materials. The significance of the study was to provide information to educational stakeholders on the key factors influencing academic performance of pupils in public primary schools. The study recommends that an evaluation study should be done to determine the role of parents on performance of pupils in public Primary schools in Kenya.