Students’ Indiscipline and Its Influence on Academic Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination in Public Boarding Secondary Schools in Makueni County, Kenya
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Date
2025-07
Authors
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Indiscipline among learners has been and continues to be a major concern among education stakeholders across all levels of learning in Kenya and globally. Studies have shown a strong correlation between students’ discipline levels and their performance in national examinations among other aspects of their living. However, relevant scientific literature is hardly available on indiscipline and its influence on academic performance among learners in public boarding secondary schools, especially within Makueni County. Therefore, this study sought to statistically assess students’ indiscipline and its influence on their academic performance in public boarding secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. It was guided by the following objectives: to establish the forms of indiscipline among boarding secondary school students in Makueni County, to determine the influence of indiscipline on students’ academic performance in KCSE in public secondary schools, to find out the trends in KCSE performance in the past six years, and to assess the strategies employed by school administrators in the management of indiscipline among students in public secondary schools in Makueni County. The study is significant as its findings will help education stakeholders to understand the influence of indiscipline on academic performance and form a comprehensive programme to curb indiscipline in order to improve academic performance in the county. The study targeted a population of 73,836 education stakeholders in Makueni County including 293 deputy principals, 293 guidance and counseling teachers and 73,250 students. Multistage and simple random sampling techniques was used to select 498 respondents, which included 29 Deputy Principals, 29 teachers in charge of Guidance and Counselling, and 435 students from 29 public boarding secondary schools in Makueni County. Data were collected through Questionnaires. Piloting was done in three public boarding schools that were not included in the final study. Subject experts such as the supervisor and lecturers from the department of educational management, policy and curriculum studies were consulted to ascertain validity of the data collection instruments through objective review of the same while test-retest approach was used to ascertain the reliability. The study applied frequencies, mean, percentages and correlational analyses in the exploration of data for each of the four objectives in which insightful findings were established. Indiscipline among students were established to have negative and statistically significant influence (r = - 0.388; p value = 0.010) on their academic performance. Additionally, noise making was established as the most common form of indiscipline behavior among the secondary school students and a number of strategies are being employed by the schools to manage indiscipline behavior among their students. The study concludes by recommending that all education stakeholders in Makueni County should jointly and individually help the students in cultivating self discipline. Such efforts will not only improve the students’ academic performance but also shape them into more responsible citizens.
Description
A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Education (Educational Administration) in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, Kenyatta University, July 2025.
Supervisor
1. Dr. Madanji Gabriel