Socio-economic factors influencing boy- child dropout rate from public day secondary schools in Kilungu sub-county- Makueni County

Abstract

The government of Kenya has placed certain measures to give basic education to its citizens by introducing Free Primary Education and Free Day Secondary Education. Despite this effort, students both boys and girls have been dropping out of school. School dropout for both boys and girls is a very serious issue not only in Kenya but also in the whole world. The main purpose for the study was to investigate the socio-economic factors that influence boy-child dropout from public day secondary schools in Kilungu Sub-county. The objectives of the study was to find out how family size, parental level of education and parental income influence the drop out of the boy-child from public day secondary schools in Kilungu sub-county. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population was comprised of the 11 principals of the public day secondary schools, 25 class teachers from Form 3 and Form 4 classes in the eleven schools, 550 boys (Form 3 and Form 4 boys only). Simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 6 public day secondary schools out of 11. The principals and the class teachers of the selected secondary schools were selected to be part of the sample while the boys were selected through simple random sampling to a maximum of 300 making a total of 318 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and document analysis (school records like registers). The collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings of the study were that family size influences boy-child drop out from public day secondary schools positively ( r =+0.512), parental level of education also influence boy- child drop out from public day secondary school (r=+0.609) and parental income influence boy-child drop out from public day secondary school ( r =+0.732) in Kilungu sub county. From the findings of this study the researcher recommended that the parents should be sensitized on the importance of boy- child education, every school should make it mandatory for parents to meet annually and discuss problems faced by boys in schools and that the government should provide funds to support boys from poor families.