Educational resources utilization and their effect on student performance in public secondary schools: a case of Mt. Elgon district

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of educational resources utilization on student performance in public secondary schools in the year 2004. The objectives of the study were to determine the effect of efficient utilization of educational resources, and the effect of teacher qualification and experience on student academic performance in national examinations. The study adopted a descriptive research design which described the sample in order to determine the current levels of efficiency in public secondary schools. The target population comprised all public secondary schools of Mt. Elgon District. The researcher used the cluster random sampling technique to group the schools into three groups. Simple random sampling was then used to select one group which formed the study sample of six schools out of the twenty. Simple random sampling was used to select a representative sample of 262 (53.4%) respondent students out of 1637 students in the six schools. Purposive sampling was used to include the Head teachers, Deputy Head teachers and Director of Studies among the sample of teachers 39 (48.15%) from the selected schools. The Education production function theory underpinned the study and it relates educational inputs to their outputs. The researcher used questionnaires and an interview schedule to collect information from the subjects. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, The linear regression model was used to determine the contribution of the independent variables to the dependent variable and to test the hypotheses of the study at the 0.05 significant level. The findings of this study revealed that 69.2% of the schools had all the text books while 30.8% did not, 43.6% of the schools had the required laboratory facilities while 56.4% did not. 81.5% of the teachers had a teaching experience of more than three years while 18.5% had a teaching experience of less than three years. The study concluded that there was need for more efficient utilization of educational resources if student performance was to be improved significantly. The study recommended that because of lack of essential resource inputs in many of the schools, the Government and parents must significantly increase school resources, while low priority should be given to setting up of new schools and instead existing ones should be expanded and the learning facilities greatly enhanced.