Impact of school feeding programme on participation of learners in primary school education in Mogotio district, Baringo county

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the impact of school feeding programme on participation of learners in primary school education in Mogotio District-Baringo County. The specific objectives of the study were: to investigate the extent to which school feeding program affect enrolment of learners in primary school education, to establish the effect of school feeding programme on attendance of learners in primary school education, to find out whether school feeding programme affect retention of learners in primary school education and to establish the extent to which school feeding programmes influence performance of learners in primary school education in Mogotio District-Baringo County. The findings of this study may be of use to the various primary schools for it would assist them understand better the issues related to school feeding programmes. This would see school managers in the various centres provide learners with balanced feeding programs and create awareness to parents on its importance to proper learning and holistic development of their children. The study would also go a long way to helping the government in making relevant policy to safeguard the wellbeing of primary school learners by providing well balanced feeding programs to these centres as well as budgetary allocation to the same. The study adopted an exploratory approach using a descriptive survey design to obtain information that will be used to describe the existing phenomena. The study was done in 10 primary schools in Mogotio Division. The unit of analysis constituted of 70 respondents (Head teacher/ Heads of school feeding program, Teachers, parent representatives and pupils). Purposive random sampling was used in this case whereby all the 70 respondents were picked to fill the questionnaire. A research questionnaire was used. In this approach, the instrument was designed in such a way that there were two parts. Subject's scores from one part were correlated with scores from the second part to test the reliability. Descriptive statistics analysis was used whereby the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) programme is used. Tables and graphs were used to present data as was found appropriate. On enrolment, study concludes that feeding programme in the centre enhance enrolment to a very great extent. The study further concludes that the primary schools sampled by the research study had enrolment of between 21- 30 pupils and over 30 pupils per school and that enrolment of most schools was done early every year. The study concludes feeding programs enhance attendance levels in the centres to a very great extent that there were cases of children who miss school because of the feeding program in place and that children miss school because of sickness, family affairs, lack of school uniform and food at home, poor performances which make them shy away, lack of parental support and guidance as well as poor characteristics developed by students. On improved learning, School feeding program increase pupils participation in class assignment duties and discussion, there are only a few meals provided during the day hence pupil do not fully participate in class work rendering to low performance, the healthy pupils in the centre are always active and perform well in the exam and a feeding program is important than other factors towards the improved performance. On retention, the study concludes that there were transfer cases in the centre and that most parents take their children to private schools citing many reasons which range from poor performance in public early childhood education centres, poor teaching methods, lack of skilled staff in public centres, and to a little extent due to poor feeding habits in the local primary schools.