Determinants of students’ dropout rate in public day secondary schools in Kitui central sub-county, Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

The study investigated the determinants of rate of dropout of students in public day secondary schools in Kitui Central Sub-County, Kitui County, Kenya. The study was guided by Bertalanffy’s Systems Theory. The study’s objectives were to determine the influence of parents’ socio-economic status, student’s gender, parental academic expectations of the students, and social media on students’ dropout rate. A descriptive survey research design was employed for the study. The population of the study was 25 schools and the size of the sample was 354 comprising ofheads ofinstitutions, form three class teachers and form three students. Qualitative as well as quantitative data was collected from principals, form three class teachers and form three students in public day secondary schools in Kitui Central Sub County using questionnaires. A pilot study in three public day secondary schools within the sub county was used to ascertain validity of the research instruments while content validity was ensured through expert judgment by university supervisors. Test re-test technique was used to assess the reliability of the instruments while Pearson product moment correlation was employed to compute the correlation coefficient. The coefficient established the degree to which the questionnaires contents were consistent in providing similar results whenever the questionnaire was administered. The coefficients were adequate as they were 0.74, 0.76 and 0.71 for the questionnaires for principals, class teachers and students respectively. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 and involved descriptive statistical procedures where quantitative data was presented in frequency tables and percentages. Open ended questions provided the qualitative data and this was coded and transcribed in to themes and reported in narratives. The study found among others that parents’ socio-economic status influences students’ dropout rates with 51.2% of the students’ families having a monthly gross income of 4000 shillings or less; 88.4% of the students coming from big families with five members or more; and majority of the parents having primary school education. The study further found that boys were more likely to drop out of school due to the factors under study than girls as 86.4% of the principals, 72.7% of the class teachers and 59.9% of the students were in agreement on this. In addition, the study further found that high academic expectations of parents on the students led to students’ dropout as 96.0% and 4.0% of the parents expected their children to score grade A and B in exams respectively. Some of the findings on social media influence on students’ dropout by principals and class teachers disagreed with those of students as all (100%) principals and all (100%) class teachers agreed that students used social media to cheat in exams while 80.8% of the students disagreed. 77.3% of the principals and 72.8% of the class teachers were in agreement that students’ academic performance would improve if they stopped using social but 81.4% of the students disagreed. The researcher concluded that socio-economic status of parents, student’s gender, high academic expectations of the parents on the students, and social media influenced students’ dropout rate. Recommendations of the study were; government to enhance adult learning policy and access to employment opportunities; build more schools and principals to strengthen guidance and counselling departments in schools; parents to be involved in their children’s learning and motivate learners; government to regulate social media content and parents to control the time students should have mobile phones.