| dc.description.abstract | Street children, just like all other children, are protected by both local and international law.
The SDG goal number four provides for quality education for all. Basic education at
elementary levels can be attributed to school attendance since it requires direct involvement
of the teacher in shaping the intellectual progress of the learner. Many children in society,
however, are dropping off from school opting to live and work on the streets. This is blocking
the attainment of United Nation’s declaration on Education for All as well as the Kenyan
government’s policy on compulsory basic education. The purpose of this study was therefore
to investigate the effect of street and non-street children’s characteristics on their schooling
in Nakuru city, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to estimate the effect of
demographic characteristics of street and non-street children on schooling, to estimate the
effect of family background factors of street and non-street children on schooling, and to
estimate the effect of location of origin for street and non-street children on schooling in
Nakuru city. The study relied on the social cognitive theory of education. Comparative
research design was employed in the study. The study was conducted in Nakuru city, within
the central business district. A sample size of 278 street children was obtained from a
population of 1,002 street children using the Krejci & Morgan sample determination table.
All the public primary and secondary schools within the town were targeted to get 1000 non
street children to get a sample of 278 for comparison. Nakuru children’s officers were
interviewed to obtain the details on the street children in the town. Both purposive and
snowball sampling techniques were used in the identification of respondents. Questionnaires
were used as the main instrument for data collection. Data was analyzed using descriptive
statistics and logistic regression to test hypotheses. From the results, it was found that
demographic factors such as gender, age and education level of the respondents are
statistically significant in predicting the chances of going to the streets among children in
Nakuru city. The results also suggested that family characteristics like parenthood, the
number of siblings in the family as well as the number of meals a day in the family were
statistically significant in determining the chances of joining streets among children in
Nakuru city. It was also established that the location of origin among children in Nakuru city
is important in determining the chances of ending up on the streets. It was concluded that age,
gender, and level of education are important in determining the chances of schooling among
children in Nakuru. Family characteristics such nature of parenthood was found to be the
major determinant of schooling or non-schooling among the children. Families with a high
number of siblings and low number meals per day had higher chances of their children
dropping out of school and joining streets. It was also concluded that children who come
from rural areas had high chances of becoming street children compared to their urban areas’
counterparts. Due to this, it’s recommended that the government should develop and
implement targeted educational support programs for the street children based on their
specific needs and characteristics identified in the study. Education financiers and other
actors should design financial assistance programs or scholarships to alleviate the economic
burden faced by families of non-street children | en_US |
