Relationship between selected family factors and academic achievement of girls in public primary schools in tharaka north sub county, tharaka nithi county, kenya

Abstract

Offering girls basic education is one sure way of giving them much greater power of enabling them to make genuine choices over the kind of lives they wish to lead. An educated woman has the skills, information and self-confidence that she needs to be better parent, worker and citizen. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between selected family factors and academic achievement of girls in Tharaka North Sub County Tharaka Nithi County Kenya. To achieve the purpose of the study, three objectives were addressed; establishing the relationship between family structure and academic achievement of girls in public primary schools in Tharaka North Sub- County, determining the relationship between family income and academic achievement of girls in public primary schools in Tharaka North Sub- County and investigating the relationship between child labour and academic achievement of girls in public primary schools in Tharaka North Sub-County. The study adopted Pearson Gender relation Theory. Correlation research design was adopted. The target population for the study was 1311 respondents from 70 public primary schools with 1240 class seven girls, one Sub County Director of Education and 70 head teachers. A total Sample of 291 respondents was drawn. Data was collected from class seven girls and head teachers using questionnaires while data from the Sub County Director of Education was collected using interview schedule. The questionnaire reliability was estimated using Cronbach alpha correlation coefficient and obtained as 0.838, which was accepted using the 0.7 threshold as minimum requirement. Validity was ascertained by the supervisors and experts from the department of education. The data was analyzed with aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 23.0 using descriptive and inferential statistics. The finding revealed that family structure and family income are significant in determining the academic achievement of public primary school girls but child labour was not found to be significant in determining the academic achievement of girls. The study concluded that the type of family structure and the level of family income affect the academic achievement of girls in Public primary schools. It was further concluded that child labour does not affect the academic achievement of primary school girls. The study recommended that the National Government and County Government of Tharaka Nithi to put in place measures of identifying girls with problems associated with the kind of family structure and family level of income and child labour and advice on how to save girls from these problems. The findings of the study would be useful to the school managers, Ministry of Education, parents and guardians in implementing educational policies.