Determinants of Children’s Enrollment in Selected Pre-Schools in Iria-Ini Zone, Nyeri South Sub-County, Kenya
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Date
2017
Authors
Mwangi, Joel Kihia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
What happens during the early stages of life of an individual has a significant influence in his
entire life. Education is viewed as a social good because it creates opportunities and provides
people with choices. In Kenya, pre-school enrollment has been declining since the introduction
of free primary education. Evidence of this can be seen in the fewer numbers of children being
enrolled in pre-schools. Available data from the District Education office Nyeri South indicated
that the proportion of children in pre-schools in Iriai-ini zone expressed as a percentage of the
population aged three to five is 59% which translates into a gap of 41%. There had been
inconsistencies among researchers in establishing the predictors for pre-school enrollment. The
purpose of this study therefore was to establish the determinants of children’s enrolment in selected
public pre-schools in Iriai-ini Zone, Nyeri County. The study was guided by the following
objectives: to establish how parents’ attitudes towards pre-school education influence pre-school
enrollment; find out how parents’ economic background influences pre-school enrollment;
establish how teachers’ qualifications influence pre-school enrollment; and to find out how
feeding programmes influence pre-school enrollment. The study was based on the educational
production function theory. The study adopted a mixed methods research design and targeted
head teachers, teachers and parents in pre-schools in Iriai-ini Zone, Nyeri South Sub-County.
Census technique and purposive sampling were used to come up with a sample of 16 head
teachers, 25 teachers and 20 parents. The study employed questionnaires and interviews to
collect data. Descriptive methods such as frequencies and percentages were used to summarize
and organize data. The results from the data analysis were presented using tables of frequencies
and percentages. An overwhelming number of teachers (92%) indicated that children’s
economic background hindered pre-school enrollment. As a whole, the parents’ indicated that
they struggled to financially support pre-school education for their children because majority of
them were unemployed. Other hindrances mentioned by teachers were ignorance by parents, lack
of support by government and poor infrastructure. Other hindrances mentioned by parents
included distance to school and poor performance of the schools. School feeding was selected by
majority of the teachers and parents as one of the factors which they believed encouraged parents
to enroll their children in pre-schools. Other encouraging factors included parents’ attitude
towards pre-school, teachers’ qualification, playing facilities and day care services provided by
pre-schools. Teachers suggested employment of more teachers and support for the feeding
programme while parents suggested inclusion of pre-school into the free primary programme.
The study concluded that children’s economic background was the major factor hindering preschool
enrollment while school feeding program was the major encouraging factor for pre-school
enrollment. The study recommended that the government should include pre-schools into free
primary education and financially support the school feeing program. The study also
recommended that the Teachers Service Commission should employ the pre-school teachers.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Education in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Masters of Education (M.ED) In Early Childhood Studies, Kenyatta University. December, 2017