Relationship between availability and utilization of selected learning resources and academic performance in public secondary schools in Kenya

Abstract

Persistent poor performances in KCSE national examinations in Kenya over the years and in particular in mathematics and science subjects have consistently lowered the overall students mean grade to an average of grade D and below. The purpose of this study was to assess the availability and utilization of selected learning resources on student academic performance in public secondary schools in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study included; to assess the influence of school library on the student academic performance, to establish the effect of laboratory equipment on the academic performance, to examine the effect of class size on the student academic performance, to assess the extent to which the availability of textbooks enhance students' academic performance and to find out the effect of tuition fee payment on the student academic performance. The hypotheses of the study were that, there is no relationship between availability of learning resources and academic performance and that there was no relationship between utilization of learning resources and academic performance. Qualitative and quantitative methodology was used. The study adopted a survey research design. The target population comprised 44 public secondary schools in Kisumu East district. Simple random sampling was used to select a representative sample of 350 students from a population of 2512 in the 34 schools and 100 respondent teachers out of the 262 teachers in the district. Purposively all the head teachers of the 14 sampled schools were included in the study for interview. theory was used in the study. Questionnaires analyzed using both descriptive The education production function and interview guides were used. Data was and inferential statistics in particular the Spearman correlation coefficient (rho) was used to determine the strength of relationship between independent and dependent variables. A chi-square test at 0.05 level of significance was used to test the hypotheses of the study. The finding was that there is a significant relationship between availability and utilization of the five selected learning resources and students' academic performance while only one had no significance. The finding will greatly assist school administration researcher recommended in improving academic performance. that education stakeholders Hence the should make available adequate learning resources for better students' academic performance