Student deviance and prevention strategies to boost academic performance in secondary schools: A case study of Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

Schools, known to exhibit strong school culture practices that drive academic excellence have equally suffered from rampant theft and exam cheating across counties in Kenya. Could it be a unique trend of deviance that could be reflecting absence of a well executed deviance prevention curriculum? Knowledge of the emerging trends in kinds of deviance being indulged in presupposes an effective rollout of preventive strategies within school cultures yet this has been missing. The aim of the study was to address this gap by investigating prevention strategies being applied to minimize student deviant behaviour in schools within Bungoma County. Mixed research design was employed while sampling strategy was a blend of multiphase, stratified and purposive sampling. A sample size of 400 out of 155,796 composed of students, teachers and school management staff in secondary schools of Bungoma County was used. Results were analyzed using cross- tabulations, frequency tables, Chi square and simple linear regression. The study found that preventive strategies that were rated highly across schools in ordered ranking were: strong academic programs that are inclusive for all cadres of students; vision of success that is rallied to by school members; cohesiveness and goal focus. However, effective prevention curriculum as a component of preventive strategies was poorly rated. Essentially, it means most schools in Bungoma County lacked a school-wide positive behaviour support system empirically known to offer an effective framework for creating school environment that mitigates deviancy among all students. The study concluded that although a significant relationship between preventive strategies and student deviance prevalence in the studied area existed, effective prevention curriculum as a core component of preventive strategies is poorly applied. It’s recommended that a deviance prevention curriculum anchored on school-wide positive behaviour support systems be implemented in all schools.