Primary School Attendance And Dropout Rates In Muvuti Zone, Central Division, Machakos District, Eastern Province, Kenya

ABSTRACT

This research report was on “Primary school attendance and dropout rates in Muvuti zone, Central Division, Machakos District, Eastern Province, Kenya”. The researcher was intrigued by seeing children of primary school age loitering; some of them selling scraps of metals and plastic containers; others providing cheap labour such as house maids, bar maids (girls) and boys as touts, shamba (Garden) boys and carrying luggage for people in market places as in Machakos town and in residential estates; others idling in streets and villages; worse still, some of them indulging in drug abuse, commercial sex and crimes. This menace necessitated the objective and the purpose of the study which was to establish indepth the factors that contribute to primary school dropouts in Muvuti zone, draw conclusion and recommend for intervention measures to curb the situation. To investigate this problem, the researcher adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Quantitative used numerical data to explore traits and situations while qualitative approach described the data collected in words. The two approaches enabled the researcher to carry out a survey to collect information from the respondents to determine the status of the problems. The sample size population was composed of one hundred teachers from the ten sampled primary schools and fifty parent representatives. The instruments/tools used were questionnaires for teachers, parents and observation. The data collected was analyzed and presented in tabular form, pie charts and bar graphs. The major findings were factors that contribute to pupils dropping out of school. The factors where compressed into categories such as: - Teachers’ negative attitude towards pupils — shown in corporal punishment (though banned in Kenya) and other various mistreatments inflicted on pupils by the teachers (36%); Economic (poverty) portrayed by pupils’ lack of food which deprives them concentration in class; shelter, clothing including school uniforms, tuition fees, extra text and exercise books, sanitary towels for girls and many other essentials of life that require money (27%); Social problems which include poor relationship among teachers and pupils, parents and children;.peer pressure influence which cause deviant behavior such as indiscipline, rebellion, truancy, drug abuse and extra text and exercise books, sanitary towels for girls and many other essentials of life that require money (27%); Social problems which include poor relationship among teachers and pupils, parents and children; peer pressure influence which cause deviant behavior such as indiscipline, rebellion, truancy, drug abuse and child abuse among others (30%); Conflicts - Parental strife which involves quarreling, insulting, fighting affect children psychologically (33%). Other minor factors are overloaded curriculum - the 8.4.4 system of education in Kenya stress both teachers and pupils. Lazy pupils avoid this strenuous work by dropping out of school; Poor performance/forced repeat were other factors. The act of forcing pupils to repeat classes at times cause conflict between teachers and parents thus affecting the pupils. Therefore poor performance and forced repeat cause dropout in school; Health problem - children who become too sick to attend school drop out; Ignorance - illiterate parents some times do not understand the value of education. Teachers may ignore pupils due to many reasons including workload bestowed on them and mistreatment by the government such as little pay. The results showed that girls between the age of eleven and twelve drop out more than boys. Most dropouts were found to come from divorced and single parent families. Factors were not the only major findings but also implications/effects of dropping out of school. Dropouts were found to cause fear of insecurity, increase of immorality (moral decay) and increase of criminality in Muvuti zone. They were found to live a vicious cycle of poverty, being frustrated, depressed and living a hopeless life thus affecting their families, schools and the society.