Socio-cultural factors influencing primary school attendance in Asego division, Homa-bay county

Abstract

In the 20th and part of the 21st century some countries in the less developed and developing world have witnessed declining performance in primary schools due to school absenteeism. The diverse socio-cultural practices with negative impact are more pronounced in poor states than the developed world, and East Africa experiences diverse socio-cultural practices that have greatly affected educational performance. The Kenyan rural areas and the informal settlements in towns are affected by continuous school absenteeism leading to poor academic performance. This study therefore assessed the socio-cultural factors influencing primary school attendance in Asego Division- Homabay County. The objectives were as follows; to examine the role of family members in influencing school attendance of primary school children, to establish the kind of activities children engage in when not attending school, to assess community members’ role in influencing primary school attendance and to examine the sociocultural factors that influence primary school attendance. The study adopted descriptive survey design to collect data from the respondents. A standard questionnaire with open and close ended questions was used. An F.G.D guide was also used to collect qualitative data. The results were analyzed using descriptive methods. Quantitative data were presented by use of text, frequency tables and charts while qualitative data were presented in words and phrases. The results show that majority of the people never went through primary education, thus have low opinion on value of education. Majority of the parents do not care about education as a result of their ignorance of the benefits of education as they make children absent from school to provide labour in the family, instead of providing them with school requirements. Children when out of school engage in activities such as: household chores, fishing, farming, and sand harvesting. The Community is not assisting children to be positive about schooling, and the government is held responsible for school absenteeism due to poverty on families, poor teachers’ motivation, and withdrawal of school feeding programme. Socio-cultural factors that influence school absenteeism include: large number of children, rampant wife inheritance, low female ownership of property, women bestowed with little household decision making power and prevalent of dependent children in most families. Other issues influencing school attendance included; little care from the guardians/parents, school aged children challenged by hunger, lack of basics for primary schooling .In Conclusion, practices and activities within the area influence school attendance of primary school going children. The researcher therefore recommends; for adequate clear policies to foster regular school attendance, continuous sensitization on the benefits of education, monitoring by all the stakeholders in the primary sub sector for realization of the value of education for children, creation of awareness through aggressive educational advocacy to enable the people realize the benefits of education, random check on the sand harvesting sites to ensure these sites are not hiding points for primary school going children who do not want to attend school, this will avoid the danger of denying children their educational right.