Students Completion Rates: Implications for Teaching and Learning Resources in Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

This study provided a critical appraisal of the effect teaching and learning resources on students’ completion rates in secondary schools in Kenya. The main objective of the study was to investigate the influence of teaching and learning resources on students’ completion rates in secondary in schools in Kenya. The study examined the role played by bench marks on instructional materials in influencing students’ completion rates. The paper also assessed the role played instructional materials in promotion of students’ completion rates. The paper further investigated the availability of teaching and learning resources. Particular attention is given to the availability and utility of teaching and learning resources that affect completion rates of students. This study was guided by the systems and benchmarking theories. Systems theory was advanced by Ludwig von Bertalnffy (1968). He emphasized that systems are open and interact with their environments to acquire qualitatively properties. Systems theory focuses on the arrangement of relations between the parts which connect them into a whole. It focused on teaching and learning resources and how changes can impact on the completion rates of students. Benchmarking theory, as advanced by Watson (1993) is established upon the performance comparisons and gaps realized in performance process. Benchmarking approach performs the same function as performance gap analysis. In this context, benchmarking determines the performance gaps with respect to generation and utilization within the management system. The paper adopted document analysis method. This was drawn from international and local studies on students’ completion rates. The study further adopted the mixed method approach. Descriptive survey design was used to collect data from one set of questionnaires. The reliability was estimated through use of Cranach's Alpha Coefficient using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0.The target population comprised of head teachers, teachers and students in secondary schools. Using the sampling guide developed by Krejcie and Morgan (1970), a sample size of 24 head teachers and 120 teachers and 240 students was selected. The total sample size for the study was 384. This conformed to the confidence Interval of 0.05, confidence level of 95 percent which is a Z-score of 1.96 and standard of deviation of 0.5. The study findings revealed that teaching and learning resources were crucial for achieving high completion rates in secondary schools in Kenya. It was therefore concluded from the findings that teaching and learning resources contribute to a great extent the students’ completion rates in secondary schools in Kenya. Findings of the study are significant to Kenya in particular and sub Saharan Africa in general, as they would assist to redress challenges of quality education arising from constrained learning and teaching resources. The findings might help the policy formulators formulate education policies and the legal framework which are skewed towards students’ completion rates. The policy implementers would understand and appreciate education policies that contribute to students’ completion rates in secondary schools The study is significant to the field of comparative and International education, since it provides data on what the Kenyan government is doing in promoting the students’ completion rates in secondary schools. The entire education stakeholders would understand how to redress issues of teaching and learning resources. This study is significant to the field of comparative and International education, since it provides data on how teaching and learning resources impact on students’ completion rates in secondary schools in Kenya.

Keywords: Completion rates, learning resources, pedagogical practices, Secondary education,