Effect of Secondary School Categorization on Examination Failure Rates Among Public Secondary Schools Students in Kenya

Japhary Omari Nyangweso, Julius K. Maiyo, Robert Kati

Abstract


Secondary schools in Kenya are categorized as national, extra-county, county, sub-county and private secondary schools. Students who excelled in K.C.S.E examination with a minimum grade of C+ are allowed to pursue different courses in public and private universities. Others who scored C and C- grade joined diploma colleges.  The paper sought to find out the effect of secondary school categorization on examination failure rates among public secondary schools students in Kenya. The scope of the study was limited to all the students from public secondary schools in the four counties of Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, and Vihiga in Kenya. It was limited to randomly chosen sample size of 464 students, 58 principals, and 58 directors of studies from the 58 sampled out public secondary schools.  Wellberg’s (1981) theory of educational productivity was employed. The paper employed mixed methods and survey research design.  Data collection instruments included questionnaires, interview schedules, focused group discussions and analysis of secondary data. Content validity was determined through subject matter expert review while reliability was determined through test-retest measures for consistency. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Inferential one was the Kruskal Wallis test. The paper concluded that secondary school categorization led to failure of students in public secondary schools at KCSE examinations in Kenya due to academic inadequacies experienced in sub-county and some county public secondary schools. It was therefore recommended that the classification of students into the four distinct groups of national, Extra County, county and sub county students be abolished.

Keywords: academic achievement, Analysis, categorization, effect, Public secondary school

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-33-03

Publication date: November 30th 2019


Full Text: PDF
Download the IISTE publication guideline!

To list your conference here. Please contact the administrator of this platform.

Paper submission email: JEP@iiste.org

ISSN (Paper)2222-1735 ISSN (Online)2222-288X

Please add our address "contact@iiste.org" into your email contact list.

This journal follows ISO 9001 management standard and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Copyright © www.iiste.org