RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND STUDENTS’ TEST SCORES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BUNGOMA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Research on Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Kenya among school-going students has mainly dwelt on the negative consequences of violence as opposed to the effects on internal test scores. This research aimed at investigating the relationship between gender-based violence and the test scores of students in public secondary schools in Bungoma County. The objectives were; to establish the relationship between physical forms of gender-based violence and students’ test scores in public secondary schools in Bungoma County; to determine the relationship between sexual forms of gender-based violence and students’ test scores in public secondary schools in Bungoma County; to examine the relationship between psychological forms of gender-based violence and students’ test scores in public secondary schools in Bungoma County and to assess the effectiveness of the policy frameworks on gender-based violence in public secondary schools in Bungoma County. The research was grounded on Social Feminism theory and Resilience theory.The research design used was correlational, and the sampling was stratified random, where 184 secondary schools were chosen out of 342. A sample of 1,104 students was determined in the target population of 250,000 through a simple random sampling to be involved in the study. Purposive sampling was utilized to select 184 heads of Guidance and Counseling teachers, 3 Sub-County Directors of Education,13 GBV survivors and one County Woman Representative. Information gathering was done through questionnaires, interviews, and analysis of documents. The students were offered questionnaires face-to-face, thus the researcher could make the instructions understandable and answer any questions or concerns that arose. The pilot study was conducted in one of the sub-county mixed day secondary schools in Bungoma County, which was not included in the main study.Reliability of the research instruments was checked using the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed, and quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics involved bar charts and pie charts, whereas inferential statistics involved Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and analysis of variance (ANOVA).Interviews and document reviews were used as qualitative data collection methods; therefore, the data were discussed with the help of the theme and discourse analysis and presented in the form of narratives and quotations. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 26. A statistically significant but weak negative correlation was observed between physical assault and academic performance (r = –.074, p = .043). This suggests that increased experiences of physical assault are modestly associated with lower academic outcomes. The Pearson correlation coefficient for sexual GBV was -0.45, which showed a moderate negative correlation between test scores and sexual violence. This implied that the more the frequency of sexual violence, the lower the test scores.The Pearson correlation coefficient between psychological violence and academic outcomes was -0.076 with a significance level of 0.037, implying a weak adverse effect which meant that students who were victims of psychological violence were likely to record low scores in tests. The research concluded that GBV in Bungoma County in the public secondary schools has a negative impact on the performance of the students. Based on these results, it is further suggested that the schools and policymakers need to intensify their efforts to prevent and report gender-based violence, improve counseling and psychosocial assistance to victims, and fully implement the national policies on gender-based violence to enable the learners to have a safer and more conducive learning environment.