STUDENTS’ BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS AND CHOICE TO ENROL INTO DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BUSIA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Every year the Ministry of Education places students in various categories of public secondary schools in Kenya. However, the final form one enrolment in these school categories do not adhere to the Ministry of Education’s initial placements. This has mainly been attributed to differentiated students’ background characteristics. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the relationship between students’ background characteristic and their decision to enroll into different categories of public secondary schools in Busia County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to establish the relationship between: students’ socio-economic status; students’ type of primary school attended; and student's sub county of birth and choice to enroll into categories of public secondary school in Busia County, Kenya. This study was guided by the Rational Theory of Choice postulated by Adam Smith. The study adopted a survey research design. The study population comprised of 8400 form one students of 2017 in the 92 public secondary schools in Busia County, Kenya. A sample of 495 students was drawn from the population using stratified, systematic, purposive and simple random sampling technique. A student questionnaire was used to generate data for the study. The questionnaire was validated using face and content validity while its reliability was determined using split- half technique at r=0.7. Data was analyzed descriptively using percentages; and statistically using Chi square test statistic by aid of SPSS version 21. Inferences were made at 0.05 level of significance on a two-tailed test. The results of the study were presented objectively inform of tables. The study established that the relationship between choice to enroll into categories of public secondary schools and student’s socioeconomic status and type of primary school attended were statistically significant, while for Sub county of birth was insignificant. It was therefore recommended that: There should be equitable allocation of school resources such as physical, technological, human and financial resources that attract students of High Socioeconomic Status to national and extra-county schools due to their ability to efficiently and effectively deliver educational services. This will ensure balanced academic achievements thus minimizing change in the original Government placement as students of varied characteristics tend to move between various categories of public Secondary Schools. It was further recommended that the higher School levies charged in National and Extra County schools meant to foster and maintain higher academic standards should be reduced to a level affordable by all students to encourage students of low Socioeconomic status to enroll into such school. Finally, Education planners should adopt an appropriate financing mechanism to aid children from low socioeconomic status to be able to access high cost national and extra-county secondary schools.