Does It Matter! Relationship Analysis Between Chronic Absenteeism and Academic Performance of Pre-School Learners in Kambiti Primary School, Makuyu Education Zone, Murang’A County, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the recent development of ECDE in Kenya and the awareness that the department is giving to the public, the overall performance in ECDE is quite dismal. Concerns have been raised over this dismal academic performance of children in spite of all the efforts being made. These concerns are not based on any systematic studies or confirmed by empirical data. Factors leading to the poor academic achievement have not been sufficiently investigated and understood; thus hindering effective development of ECDE in the country. To this end, this study aimed to establish the connection of chronic absenteeism with academic achievement of pre-school children (age 4 - 5 years) in Kambiti ECDE centre in Makuyu Education Zone, Murang’a County, Kenya. The objectives that addressed this study were: to find out effects of chronic absenteeism on pre-school children’s academic performance and; to establish the relationship in academic performance between pre-school children who are affected by chronic absenteeism and their counterparts who attend school regularly. Descriptive survey research design was adopted by this study. The research study population comprised of 1 head teacher, 1 teacher, 46 children, and 46 parents/guardians. Purposive sampling applied in sampling 1head teacher and 1 teacher, purposeful sampling was applied to get a sample size of 8 children, while snowball sampling applied to sample parents/guardians. Data from the manager and the teacher was obtained by use of questionnaire, while interview-guide and observation schedules collected information from children. Focused group discussions collected information from parents/guardians. The researcher did pilot-testing of the research instruments with a representative group of the research population. To ascertain instruments’ validity and reliability, the researcher sought expert assistance from his supervisor, who helped improve the instrument’s content validity. The obtained data was analyzed by use of frequency tallies as well as percentages.  The findings were presented in tabular forms, bar-graphs, and pie-charts. Data analyzed formed the basis for research findings, conclusive remarks as well as recommendations. The study found out that a good number of children were chronically out of school due to various reasons including and not limited to: poverty, family health and nutritional problems, financial constraints, drugs and alcohol abuse, poor school climate, transport problems, differing community attitudes towards education. It became evident that chronic absenteeism negatively impacted on the academic achievement of children; children who missed more than 10% scored less than their colleagues who attended school regularly in achievement tests. This is because their absence limited their attention, concentration, content mastery and retention. The following recommendations were drawn from the study: all the ECDE stakeholders should join hands to ensure that pre-school attendance is improved amongst children as it would positively impact on the content mastery and retention; and thus the academic performance of these young minds considering that they are in their formative years. This could be done by jointly improving the basic needs to these children as directed in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

Keywords: Preschool; Pre-school education; Academic performance; chronic absenteeism;