Parental socio-economic factors influencing enrolmentand retention of children in early childhood development centers in Lambwe Division, Mbita Sub-County, Kenya.
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Date
2014
Authors
Okumu, Kennedy Oluoch
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Abstract
The early years of a child's life are globally accepted as the most critical years for
the holistic and lifelong future development of a child. Because of this, one the
Kenya's Millennium Development Goals set is to achieve education for all and
particularly, making enrolment in Early Childhood Development programs
compulsory for all school age going children. With regard to this, Low pre-school
enrolment and class retention have far reaching consequences hence this study
sought to examine the influence of parents' socio-economic status on enrolment
and retention rates of children in Early Childhood Development centres in
Lambwe division, Mbita district, Kenya. The Specific Objectives for the study
were to: determine the influence of parental level of income on enrolment and
retention of children in Early Childhood Development centres, find out the extent
to which parent's level of education influence enrolment and retention of children
in Early Childhood Development centres and establish how parents occupation
influence enrolment and retention of children in Early Childhood Development
centres. The study adopted the ecological systems theory by Bronfenbrenner,
(1979). The target population for the study comprised of 300 parents with
children in Early Childhood Development centrers and two Quality Assurance
and Standard Officers (QASOs) in the Division. The study used cluster random,
simple random and purposive sampling techniques to obtain the required sample
size. The sample included 169 parents and 2 QASOs. Before the actual study,
Piloting was conducted to 10 parents. The researcher used test-re-test method to
determine the reliability of the instrument which was found to be 0.90 for parents'
questionnaire. The study employed descriptive and correlation research design.
The data on enrolment, grade retention and parental socio economic status were
analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Data
collected was coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 11.0 software. Descriptive statistics used were measures
of central tendencies, frequency distributions and percentages. The inferential
statistics used were Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient and chisquare
to establish whether there were any significant relationships between
variables. All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significant levels. The major
fmdings were as follows: There was a significant relationship between parental
level of income and Early Childhood Development centrers' enrolment and
retention, there was a significant relationship between parental level of Education
and Early Childhood Development centrers' enrolment. Further, the study found a
weak relationship between the parent's level of education and the child's retention
at Early Childhood Development centrers centres and lastly there was no any
significant relationship between the parents' Occupation and children's
enrolment, parents' occupation and grade retention of Children in Early
Childhood Development centrers. Since not all issues were addressed by the
current study, it is recommended that another study be conducted in another
location to confirm and expand the current fmdings by including a more diverse
sample of pupils and teachers across the county.
Description
Master of Education(Early Childhood Studies) in the school of
Education, Kenyatta University ,101p. November 2014, LB 1139.23 .O45