Influence of school-related gender based violence on girls participation in public secondary schools in Kitui county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate influence of school-related gender based violence on girls‟ participation in public secondary schools in Kitui County, Kenya. It was guided by the following research objectives: to examine the extent which school related gender based violence influence girls‟ retention rates, absenteeism rates; and enrolment rates in secondary schools. The study adopted the descriptive survey design and the target population consisted of 188 public secondary schools in the county, 188 principals, 1275 teachers and 5,137 students. Stratified sampling was used to select the schools, where the county is divided into three sub-counties and in each sub-county one secondary school was used in the pilot study. Simple random sampling was used to select 10% of teachers and students, hence the study sample was56 principals, 128 teachers and 514 students. Questionnaires were the main data collection tools. They were administered directly to the respondents to enable the researcher to clarify the instructions for completion and also to handle any queries and uncertainties that arose from the respondents. The questionnaires were collected immediately thereafter. Data analysis sought to provide answers to research questions and fulfilled research objectives. The study applied both qualitative and quantitative description methods to process data.The study findings revealed thatgender based violence in Kitui County influences girls‟ participation in education from time to time that interfere with retention rate of the girls to a very high extent. Participation is hindered by gender based violence since absenteeism lowers participation in education and more so for the girls as they are more vulnerable than their boys counterparts. Majority of girls who experience gender based violence were absent from school from time to time, causing a high percentage count for girls absenteeism in secondary schools. All the principals and teachers believe that there are probable measures that could be put in place to increase girls‟ participation in education by down trending gender based violence.The study recommended that the government should put in place measures to intensify sensitization in the secondary schools against gender based violence especially through creating awareness for girl child to elaborately identify different kinds of gender based violence that would intimidate them silently. Sensitization of the public on the importance of discouraging gender based violence could increase girls‟ retention in secondary schools. Bases on the study findings the study proposes a study should be carried out to investigate the impact of gender inequality among communities in provision of quality of education.