Influence of Family Socio-Economic Factors on Pupil's Transition Rate from Primary to Secondary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya visualizes attaining middle income status by 2030. In order realize this; one of the key drivers is the pursuit of developing skilled workforce. The increase of competent workforce demands for interventions to ensure that all children have access to quality primary education and increasing the transition rate from primary to secondary schools to meet the anticipated middle and high level manpower requirements. The national average transition rate of pupils from primary to secondary schools in Kenya stood at 76.6% by 201, which falls below global standards and the national target. A number of factors contribute to the uneven and low transitions rate. Such aspects include cultural, environmental, school based, and home based or socio-economic factors. Even though Kenya had the inception of Free Primary Education in 2003, Free Day Secondary Education in 2008 and there being several vacancies in secondary schools within the Count, the transition rate in Nakuru County has stagnated at about 50% and decreased to 48.6%in 2016. This decrease is worrying not only to teachers and parents, but also to scholars and other community members. Accordingly, there was need to investigate the extent to which family socio-economic factors influence pupils' transition rate from primary to secondary schools in the County. This study applied ex-post facto research design. A sample of 406 respondents (42 Head Teachers and 364 Teachers) was purposively selected through stratified random sampling. The sample size was determined using Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) table. Head teacher Family Socio-Economic factors accounted for 78.0% of the total variance in transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools whilst Teacher Family Socio-Economic factors described 89.0%. It therefore indicates that, statistically, head teacher family socio-economic factors and transition in the study positively correlated. Teacher Family Socio-economic factors and transition rate was also positively correlated.  The study is of great value to the Nakuru County, Government of Kenya, Non-governmental organizations, private sector, and the teaching fraternity among other stakeholders in order to examine the influence Family Socio-Economic Factors on pupils' transition rate and seek intervention measures which may lead to improved transition rate of pupils from primary to secondary schools.