FACTORS INFLUENCING EDUCATION IN ISIOLO COUNTY

Only 13% of Isiolo County residents have a secondary level of education or above. Isiolo North constituency has the highest share of residents with a secondary level of education or above at 16%. Academic performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary/Primary Education in almost all the subjects offered has been low in Isiolo County. However, the major factors contributing to this trend have not been clearly understood.

This therefore limits the ability of educational stakeholders to improve the performance in KCSE. A research was carried out recently to investigate the socio-economic, socio-cultural and school based factors that are affecting student‟s performance in KCSE in Isiolo County. Seven research questions were formulated to guide the study. The study adapted survey descriptive design. The target population for the study constituted about 500 form 4 students, 17 form 4 class teachers representing all the 17 classes (streams) in the 10 schools, and 10 head teachers totaling to 527 people. The sample size comprised of 124 respondents or about 18.

Respondents in each of the seven schools who included head teachers, form four class teachers and form four students. All the head teachers and form four class teachers of the sampled seven schools were purposively included in the sample of respondents.

Three quality assurance and standard officers were also among those interviewed. The study used questionnaires, interviews and observation schedule. Findings has shown that socio-economic and socio-cultural factors affected KCSE performance in the county. It also revealed that school based factors like teacher shortage among others contributed to poor performance of KCSE in the county.

Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that socio- economic and socio- cultural and school based factors affected KCSE performance. Based on the findings it was recommended that the schools should be provided with the required facilities to facilitate learning. It was also recommended that the government should provide bursary for needy children and employ more teachers to tackle the problem of teacher shortage.

The study also recommended that the head teachers should supervise teachers to ensure quality teaching and should strive to enhance discipline in the school. The community should be educated on the importance should also be sensitized on the importance education. The study suggested that a study on assessment of the implications of current policies on the education of the nomadic and pastoralists.

It was also suggested that a study on an investigation on the effects of social cultural practices on education of the nomadic pastoralists should be conducted and lastly a study on effect of teacher demographics on student performance should be conducted.