Impact of internal inefficiency on completion in public primary schools in Tharaka Nithi county, Kenya

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to find out the impact of internal inefficiency on completion in Public Primary Schools in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya in the provision of education. Many potential primary school pupils each year fail perform well in the national examination due to wastages in terms of forced repetition and consequently dropping out of the school system. The study endeavoured to determine challenges and problems faced by public primary schools in terms of inefficiency in providing education and determine possible solutions. The objectives of the study were to assess the influence on enrolment, retention and completion rates, establish the causes of dropout rate and poor performance and finally the enhancement of efficiency in the schooling system. The study identified factors affecting the efficiency of public primary schools namely repetition, dropout, low transition and poor performance. The research employed a descriptive survey study design as a better option for intervening in public primary school internal efficiency. Out of 42 primary schools, only 15 public primary schools were sampled. The researcher used questionnaires and interview schedules to collect data. With a target population of 1212, simple random sampling was used to select respondents in these groups namely; Head Teachers, Teachers, and Pupils totalling to 405 respondents. Data was obtained and analyzed by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer package to determine the impact of internal inefficiency on completion in Public Primary schools in Tharaka Nithi County. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis was used to analyze the data collected. Responses from questionnaire, interview schedules were organized according to pertinent aspects of the study. The findings were presented through descriptive statistics by use of frequencies, tables, graphs and pie-charts. The study showed clearly that among the many challenges facing internal efficiency in public primary schools key among them were repetition of pupils, dropout, poor performance, low completion and transition rates. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should develop a policy to outlaw repetition, improve the school environment so as to increase completion and transition and the government should check on the community based factors that lead to dropout. Based on these recommendations, the study proposes further investigation into the impact of repetition, dropout and poor performance in KCPE in public primary schools in the provision of education in Tharaka Nithi County.