Abstract
Secondary schools in Kenya are categorized as national, extra-county, county, sub-county and private secondary schools. Students who excelled in K.C.S.E examination with a minimum grade of C+ are allowed to pursue different courses in public and private universities. Others who scored C and C- grade joined diploma colleges. The paper sought to find out the effect of secondary school categorization on examination failure rates among public secondary schools students in Kenya. The scope of the study was limited to all the students from public secondary schools in the four counties of Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, and Vihiga in Kenya. It was limited to randomly chosen sample size of 464 students, 58 principals, and 58 directors of studies from the 58 sampled out public secondary schools. Wellberg’s (1981) theory of educational productivity was employed. The paper employed mixed methods and survey research design. Data collection instruments included questionnaires, interview schedules, focused group discussions and analysis of secondary data. Content validity was determined through subject matter expert review while reliability was determined through test-retest measures for consistency. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Inferential one was the Kruskal Wallis test. The paper concluded that secondary school categorization led to failure of students in public secondary schools at KCSE examinations in Kenya due to academic inadequacies experienced in sub-county and some county public secondary schools. It was therefore recommended that the classification of students into the four distinct groups of national, Extra County, county and sub county students be abolished. Keywords: academic achievement, Analysis, categorization, effect, Public s econdary school DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-33-03 Publication date: November 30 th 2019
Highlights
According to Tagharrobi (2012), one of the most important aspects of efficiency evaluation in education systems is the evaluation of academic failure and its familial and psychosocial outcomes for students
To establish the effect of public secondary school categorization on failure rates, a questionnaire was administered to 464 form four public secondary school students and an interview to 58 principals and 58 directors of studies among the 58 public secondary schools in the four counties of Kakamega, Busia, Bungoma, and Vihiga
On a four point rating scale of more than once; once; not even once; and never; the 464 public secondary students were asked to give their ratings on a number of questions that were to give responses that were to determine their ratings on secondary school categorization and failure rates among learners in public secondary schools that they were enrolled
Summary
According to Tagharrobi (2012), one of the most important aspects of efficiency evaluation in education systems is the evaluation of academic failure and its familial and psychosocial outcomes for students. Bakouei (2010), classified them as personal, socioeconomic and educational. He further observed that the effect of factors such as high school average grade; educational background and entrance exam scores had been investigated in previous studies and found to impact greatly on students’ academic achievement in high schools. The researcher found out that there were weaknesses in the students' academic achievement. He further noted that the approach to teaching using traditional methods instead of using modern teaching methods, as well as the poor relationship between teachers and students had created a teaching environment lacking of respect which led to lack of students' acceptance of the learning process as whole
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