Abstract:
This study was aimed at establishing the influence of demographic factors of age, gender and Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education (KCSE) entry grade on students’ academic achievement among primary teacher trainees. 312
first year students were included in the research and were placed in structured groups based on the academic
predictors and were guided to study three subjects –Integrated Science, Christian Religious Education and Education
/professional studies during their first term of admission. Their end-term examination test scores for the three pilot
subjects were computed and compared to the demographic factors. Pearson product correlation and univariate
analysis of variance were used to establish the inferential statistics . The study recorded no significant relationship
between students Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education entry grade and their performance (r = 0.232, P > 0.05).
Older students (30-39 years) performed slightly better than middle aged, 23-25 years and the younger students,19-
21 years. The academic performance in various age brackets was however not significant (F = 0.11, P = 0.897, P >
0.05). Groups of male students scored lower than the groups of female students. However, gender had no significant
relationship in the students’ performance (r = 0.168, P > 0.05). The findings reveal that the academic predictors did
not have a significant influence on the students’ performance. It is suggested that the study can be extended to sister
colleges and the scope of the subjects expanded in order to affirm or refute the result.
