Influence of demographic factors on academic performance among primary teacher trainees - a case study of Machakos Teachers College

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.