Factors affecting performance of primary school pupils from nomadic pastoral communities of Turkana East district, Kenya

Abstract

The main focus for this study was to examine the factors affecting performance of primary school pupils from Nomadic pastoral communities of Turkana East District. This study sought to establish the following research objectives; to establish the school based factors affecting school performance in nomadic pastoral communities, to establish the cultural based factors affecting school performance in nomadic pastoral communities, to establish socio-economic factors affecting school performance in nomadic pastoral communities and to investigate the effects of religious education teaching on culture and school performance. This study adopted descriptive survey research design. It targeted the ten public primary schools in Turkana East District. The target population was head teachers, teachers, pupils and parents. All the ten (10) head teachers were purposively selected; Seventy seven (77) class eight teachers, two hundred (200) class eight pupils and forty (40) class eight parents were the sample and thus the study population was 327 respondents. Head teachers and teachers were selected purposively; parents and pupils were selected through simple random sampling technique. The study used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through questionnaires and interview schedules. Primary data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively; quantitative data was presented in form of frequency Tables, charts and graphs and qualitative data was presented thematically. The study findings revealed that the challenges affecting nomads in accessing education are diverse. The findings from the field illustrate the continuing under-participation of nomads in education. Informants cited the location of schools, poor facilities, attitude of parents and poverty among other issues as the inhibiting factors affecting participation of nomads in formal education. If full participation is required, the main issues arising are the need to revamp existing facilities, entrench mobile schools and strengthen legislation for compulsory education while concurrently improving the infrastructure for nomadic people. In this way, education can be provided that respects the nomadic lifestyle. In general, the results from the study model test reveals that indeed Nomadic pastoral factors significantly affect performance of primary school pupils, multiple regression results R= 0.777 and R2= 78.5%, this and at u<0.05 level of significance and p=0.03 the null hypothesis was rejected and thus concluded that Nomadic Pastoral factors affects to great extent performance of the pupils in the district. This implies 78.5% of pupil's performance is explained by the four factors; school based factors, socio-economic factors, cultural factors and religious education teachings. The research concludes by proposing a multifaceted approach to the education of nomads. However, mobile schools with a non-formal curriculum package may be an especially attractive option due to expected suitability in nomadic setting and their relatively low cost, given expected financial constraints. This study will be of great benefit to the Ministry of Education, teachers, parents, pupils and also in improving school performance in the nomadic pastoral communities