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Globally, schools are expected to offer sufficient opportunities to nurture holistic
character development of learners and to improve academic performance. Schools are
key in impacting the formative years of young persons and instilling life skills.
However, the Kenya primary educational practices are skewed towards passing the
national written examinations; laying less emphasis on non-class activities. Hence, the
study evaluated the relationship between sports involvement and academic
performance for learners in public primary schools in Bungoma County. The study’s
specific objectives were to: find out learners’ level of involvement in sports, assess
learners’ perception of the relationship between sports involvement and their
academic performance, evaluate the teachers’ perception of the relationship between
sports involvement and academic performance and investigate relationships between
the level of learners’ involvement in sports and subsequent academic performance by
comparing the academic scores of learners who participate in sports. The study was
based on Astin’s Involvement Theory whose basic principle is that educational
experience ought to consider both classroom and out of class performances in
development of a holistic learner functioning physically, emotionally and
psychologically. Concurrent triangulation mixed method was used, where both
qualitative and quantitative data was collected, analyzed and findings concurrently
interpreted was adopted for this study. Purposive and stratified sampling methods
were used. Three sub-counties of Bungoma were selected for the study. A total of 54
public schools (33.13%) participated in the study. A sample of 299 respondents
participated comprising; 208 learners, 78 class teachers and 21 head teachers.
Structured questionnaires, interviews schedules, Focused Group Discussion guide and
document analysis guide were used to collect primary data. Secondary data was
sourced from published and unpublished scholarly works and relevant governmental
reports. Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze collected
data. Descriptive data was presented using frequencies, percentage and charts while
chi- square was used to present Quantitative data, qualitative data was arranged based
on themes and explained. The study established significant improvement on academic
performance for learners who participate in sports with a chi-square result of 112.90
on a 0.000 Probability (P) value. Further, the means score of students who
participated in sports was 272.20 which was higher than the 237.74 National results in
2019. The findings indicate that majority of learners who participate in sporting
equally perform well in their academics. The study found that learners had positive
attitude towards sports and believed that it positively impacted their performance.
Further teachers said that involvement in sports improved concentration in class hence
improves academic performance. The study recommended schools to solicit
stakeholders support to improve sporting facilities, teachers to create time for
remedial sessions for learners who skip lessons because of involvement in sports and
perception of teachers towards learners’ involvement in sports to be boosted. Majority
of respondents indicated that learners involved in sporting activities enjoy holistic
development hence need for balanced focus on both sports involvement and class
performance. The study will contribute towards the improvement in learner participation in sports which from the findings it lags behind. |
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