Factors affecting effective In-mate candidates preparation for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Examination: A case study of Naivasia Maximum Prison

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the factors affecting effective in-mate candidate's preparation for the Kenya certificate of primary education examination in Naivasha maximum prison, Nakuru County in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to establish effect of instructional materials, effect of academic qualification of teachers, the effect of physical infrastructure and effect of support present. This study was guided by the Education Production Functions Really Theory, proposed in 1997. Which express the relationship between the qualities of outputs produced as functionally being dependent upon quality of inputs used. A case study research design and purposive sampling technique was used in choosing the sample size. The target population for the study was the District Education Officer, 4 welfare officers, 5 teachers in prison and 26 in-mate Candidates. Data was collected using interview for the DEO, questionnaire for the welfare officers, teachers in prison and in-mate students. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.7 was acceptable for reliability of research instruments. Data collected was analyzed using quantitatively and qualitatively. Inferential and descriptive statistics played an important role in the presentation and interpretation of analyzed data. For descriptive statistics, frequency tables, bar graphs and percentages was used while for Inferential the researcher used Regression analysis, Analysis of Variance, Pearson correlation and Chi- Square. Regression analysis was carried out using the model, which combines independent variables with dependent variable. The model, (R2 = 0.88) shows that all the predictors account for 88% variation for effective preparation of in-mate candidates. Therefore, the predictors used in the model captured the variation in effective preparation of in-mate candidates. The adjusted R2 gave the idea of how well the model generalized. In my case the value of adjusted R2 was .877, which showed that if the data was derived from the prison population rather than the sample it could have account for approximately 87.7% less variance in the effective in-mate candidates preparation. The change statistics were used to test whether the change in R2 is significant using the F ratio. The Model caused R2 to change from zero to .880 and that change gave rise to an F ratio of 277.34, which was significant at a probability of .05. The findings indicated that there was a significant relationship between the instructional materials (X2 (35) =437.01, p<.05 academic qualification of teachers, (l (35) =435.676, p<.05 support present (X2 (35) =123.36, p<.05. infrastructure, (X2 (35) =475.5, p<.05. Based on the findings it was recommended that the Ministry of education should provide clear guidelines, policies and professional guidance and training regarding effective preparation of in-mate candidates for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination in all prisons.