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.