Parental Involvement’s Influence on Access-Transition Rate from Pre-Primary to Primary Education in Kakamega County, Kenya.

Abstract

Pre-primary school years present significant opportunities for children acquiring the required competencies for transition. One of the challenges facing basic education in Kenya is poor access and transition. A lot of research has been carried out on the importance of parental involvement in children’s education but quite few have examined contributions that parents make to their children access and transition from one class to another. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate parental involvement influence on pre-primary pupils’ access and transition to primary school education in Kakamega County, Kenya. This study was guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system model that described pattern of interplay of different people and institutions to the life of a child over time. The study employed survey design approach. The study was carried out in Kakamega County which is characterised by low access and transition from pre-primary to primary school education focusing on Kakamega central Sub-county. Target population were all pre-primary schools. For inclusivity, stratified sampling was used, whereas simple random was used to sample 45 pre-primary schools including both private and public schools. Purposive sampling was used to get the area of study and the 38 respondents from public and 52 from private pre-primary schools. The collective sample size was 90 respondents. Piloting was done in 4 schools drawn from rural and urban. Content validity was done by the specialists in the department who checked the tools to see if they captured the necessary information. Reliability was done using test and retest method. Data collection utilised questionnaires for pre-school teachers and interview schedule for parents. Data cleaning, organization and coding was done before analysis. Data was analysed using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The teachers reported that only 51.1% of parents participated in supporting in feeding program, 26.7% participated in providing writing materials and only 15.6 % participated in checking if children did school work. Further revealed that parents never participated in providing play materials to school, coming to school to tell children stories or coming to school as resource persons in outdoor activities. On the other hand, parents revealed that 46% participated in providing writing materials, 42.2 % involved in calling teachers to monitor children learning and 44.4% promptly paid school fees. Further, parents revealed that 1% engaged in supporting feeding program, 2% providing reading materials, 1% visit schools to monitor children learning, 2% read stories to children at home and 2% parents attend school meetings. It was recommended that strategies should be put in place to enhance parental involvement such as sensitization, regular communication about children progress and parents involved in decision making in schools. The study results are significant in aiding school administrations and other policy makers to come up with ways of creating awareness and promoting parental participation in pre -primary education.