Student Characteristics Leading to Students’ Dropout from Mixed-Day Secondary Schools in Bomet East Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya’s education sector has faced many bottlenecks one being school dropouts. In 2018, the Kenyan government came up with 100% transition rate from primary school to secondary school to increase access to secondary school education which was hoped to result in increased completion rates. This study aimed at investigating Student’s Characteristics Leading to Students’ Dropout from Mixed-Day Secondary Schools in Bomet East Sub-County, Kenya for the period between the year 2019 and 2022. This study investigated individual student’s reasons as to why students drop out of school and suggested recommendations on what can be done about it. This study was guided by the objective: to investigate the student’s-related factors leading to school dropout. The researcher based the study on The Classical Theory of Equal Opportunities and Social Darwinism which reiterates that each person is born with some ability that cannot be altered but can be nurtured and is unique to that particular individual. To collect data from Principals, teachers and students of the sampled Mixed Day Secondary schools, the researcher employed Descriptive Survey. Before embarking on actual research, Piloting was carried out. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data while Percentages and Frequencies were used to analyze the data. Analysis was done by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study revealed that the following student’s characteristics lead to students’ dropout; financial problems, peer influence, pregnancy, drug abuse, operating motorcycle business, over age, community/ family, family child labour, negative attitude to schooling, migration and health issues. The study suggests six recommendations to curb school dropouts. The researcher hopes that the findings will benefit the teachers, school principals and other school managers and the Ministry of Education to put necessary measures in place to deal with the dropout problem. The findings will add .......