Influence of Home Based Factors on Internal Efficiency Primary Schools in Bungoma North and Kimilili-Bungoma Districts, Kenya

Abstract

Education reform efforts in developing countries are aimed at making education an effective vehicle for national development. Educational attainment, especially primary education, is perceived as one of the main vehicles for spurring economic growth and improving living standards in developing countries. In Kenya, the proposed allocations to both the Ministry of Education and that of Higher Education constitute 13% of the total expenditure for the Financial Year 2011-2012, out of which the Teachers Service Commission receives 4.6% of the total annual expenditure. Bungoma-North and Kimilili-Bungoma Districts have consistently performed poorly in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education despite some schools within the same Districts performing above average. The mean scores in 2008, 2009 and 2010 were 246.96, 240.89 and 234.19 respectively. This raised concern on internal efficiency of primary schools in the districts. The purpose of this study therefore was to examine the influence of home based factors on internal efficiency of primary schools in Bungoma-North and Kimilili-Bungoma Districts. Objectives of the study were to: Establish the extent to which parental level of education; parental occupation; language use at home and parental income influence internal efficiency of primary schools. Education Production function theory (Psacharopoulos & Woodhall, 1985) was used in this study to show the influence of home based factors on internal efficiency of primary schools. The research designs used were correlation and descriptive survey designs. The target population consisted of 106 Head teachers, 530 standard eight teachers, 6850 standard eight pupils and 2 District Quality Assurance Officers (DQASOs). The study sample consisted of 40 head teachers, 200 standard eight teachers, 400 class eight pupils who were selected using simple random sampling technique and 2 DQASOs who were selected using saturated sampling technique.  The study used questionnaires and interview schedules as research instruments. From the research findings, the study established that Parental level of education, occupation; income and language used at home do influence academic achievement of pupils. Fathers’ level of Education was a significant predictor of pupils’ performance, Pupils Performance in KCPE improved by 16.973 with fathers Education, The variation in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education pupils results were accounted for by home based factors (6.1%).

Keywords: School; Internal; Efficiency; Primary; Kenya.