Factors influencing performance in English Language Examination: A comparative study of Rural and Urban Secondary Schools in Uasin Gishu county, Kenya.

Abstract

This study compared the factors influencing performance in English language in rural and urban secondary schools in Uasin Gishu District, Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The study used ex-post facto or causal comparative research design. The study sample comprised 400 (320 rural and 80 urban) students in form three, of which 180 were boys (30 urban and 150 rural), and 220 were girls (50 urban and 170 rural). The participants were drawn from 14 out of 62 rural public secondary schools and 4 out of 16 urban public secondary schools in Uasin Gishu District. A total of 18 teachers of English were interviewed. Rural and urban secondary schools were selected by stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Rural and urban students from form three classes were selected using random sampling. A questionnaire, interview and a writing proficiency test were used in data collection and were administered to the participants by the researcher. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics: - frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation; and inferential statistics: ttest to compare the mean scores of rural and urban students on the factors affecting English performance. One Way analysis of Variance (Anova) was used to compare the mean scores of boys, girls and mixed schools. The findings indicate that there was a significant difference of the influence of teaching and learning resources t (398) = 0.00, p < 0.05; teacher characteristics t (398) =0.00, p < 0.05; students' perception of English t (398) = 0.01, p < 0.05 between rural and urban schools. There was no significant difference in the influence of students' gender t (398) = 0.21, P > 0.05.There was also a significant difference in the influence of type of school on students' performance in English F (2, 397) = 3.67, P < 0.05. Based on the findings it was recommended that the government through the Ministry of Education should promote equitable distribution of educational facilities and resources to all public schools in the country.