Home based factors influencing pupils’ academic performance in public primary schools in south Gucha sub county, Kisii county Kenya

Abstract

The study investigated the home based factors that influences pupils’ academic performance in public primary schools in South Gucha Sub- County in Kisii County. The objectives of the study were to establish; the influence of family level of income, parents’ level of education, to establish the extent to which child labor and family setup influences pupils’ academic performance. The study used the descriptive survey design and purposive sampling techniques to select the schools and sampling techniques to select the schools and simple random sampling to select class teachers and pupils involved in the study. A total of 32public primary schools were selected for the study. The researcher used 2 class teachers from each school making a total of 64 class teachers and also 20 pupils from each school making a total of 640 pupils. The researcher used two questionnaires for teachers and pupils. The test and re-test method was used to determine reliability of the instrument which gave a reliability of 0.89. Mugenda and Mugenda, (2003) asserts that a coefficient of 0.70 to 1 implies high degree of reliability of data. Data was analyzed assisted by SPSS to assist get the result. The results were presented in tables, frequencies, percentages and charts. The findings of the study were that most parents are poor and unemployed and hence cannot meet other required school levies. It also found out that most of the parents have no formal education and thus can neither assist their children at home nor motivate them to work hard since they are ignorant of education. The researcher recommended that the MOE should give maximum protection to the children by enforcing the law on the child rights to protect them from child labor and other home based mistreatments that affect their performance. Based on the findings, the head teachers should sensitize the parents and the community on the benefits of education and the needs of educating their children. The school management committees should also create favorable learning environment in school for the pupils to maximize learning to compensate for the time lost due to home based factors. The suggestions for the study include need to conduct such study in other sub-counties and also to carry a similar study in private schools so as to scrutinize their performance. Finally a similar study should be conducted incorporating parents and SMC members since they are key stakeholders in education sector.