An Empirical Study of the Factors Affecting Educational Performance in Kenya

Abstract

Developing countries like Kenya are always seeking ways in which they can increase their economic and social performance. The education sector is one sector that ever seeks to ensure the achieved success these two areas of economic and social development. The basis of this paper is to identify and investigate the factors that affect the growth of the education sector in Kenya in terms of performance. Education has a key role in the economy of Kenya and they continue to influence the overall economic growth with its contribution to the development indices having improved from the year 1963. The change from 7-6-4 education system to the current 8-4-4education system has had a large impact on the population’s social capital with even more changes to be expected with the modification of the education system by the current government. . The management of the education sector is therefore vital in employment creation, income generation and is a foundation for industrialization and the key to the growth and development of the nation of Kenya. This study’s objectives are to identify the issues faced by education stakeholders in their quest for growth, improvement, and development of the sector. Education in Kenya is viewed from the pre-primary education level to the tertiary and university levels of education. The factors that were studied include the high cost of education, cultural factors, the gender factors, attitude, regionalization and the influence that government has on the quality of education. The study was conducted in different parts of Kenya where there are major tertiary institutions namely; Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru and Moyale. The target population of the study was a sample of stakeholders from different parts of Kenya. This was deemed suitable because of the large and diverse number of students, teachers, and government officials. This paper used survey as a data collection method. The survey instrument was used to collect 195 valid responses from University students in the above named regions in Kenya. The results of this study hold strongly on devolution and gender and culture as the main factors affecting education performance. The government of Kenya should consider these two factors while making education policies.