Factors Affecting Enrollment in Public Day Secondary Schools in Gilgil Sub -County, Kenya

Abstract

Secondary education is recognized as part of basic education with the aim of enhancing the citizen’s access to quality and equitable education so as to achieve the vision 2030 goals. However, according to the third annual progress report 2010-2011 on the implementation of the first medium term plan (2008-2012) of vision 2030, the enrollment targets have not yet been met despite the efforts made by the government in the line of free day secondary education and secondary bursary scheme. This study is aimed at investigating the factors affecting enrollment in public day schools in Gilgil sub-county. The objectives of this study were: to investigate the effect of child labor, to establish the effect of gender, and to determine the effect of parents’ level of income, and to assess the effect of drug abuse on enrollment in public day secondary schools in Gilgil sub-county. Research methodology was through descriptive design and proportionate stratified sampling technique was employed and a sample of 40 respondents selected which was inclusive of the principals and teachers from the sampled public day secondary schools in Gilgil sub-county. Primary data was collected in the field questionnaires. Questionnaires comprised of both open ended and close ended questions designed to answer research questions in chapter one of the study. They were administered by the researcher and responses recorded as the interviews progress. Secondary data was collected from secondary sources. The study used both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative data required respondents to indicate the opinions, statements and suggestions. This was the case for the open ended questions in the questionnaire. Qualitative analyses therefore consisted of categorizing tabulating and recombining evidence to address the research questions which were used as unit of analysis. Qualitative data was analyzed by organizing data in to themes, patterns and sub-topics. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences using descriptive statistics, which are concerned with development of certain indices using raw data such as frequency counts and percentages. The results were presented using frequency tables and pie charts to make meaningful conclusions. The findings revealed that: 17.5% of the respondents were of the opinion that child labor greatly affects enrollment in public day secondary schools, while 42.5% were of the opinion that the effect is moderate. 55% of the respondents were of the opinion that gender just had a moderate effect on enrollment in secondary schools. 50% of the respondents were of the opinion that parents’ income level greatly affects enrollment in public day secondary schools. 35% of the respondents were of the opinion that drug abuse had a moderate effect on the enrollment in public day secondary schools. The study concluded that child labor, parental income, gender and drug abuse have an effect on enrollment of students in public day secondary sc