Abstract:
The government of Kenya has provided free and compulsory primary education for all school going children. Irrespective of free education there is significant wastage rate of primary school children in public schools in Keiyo South Sub County. The main objectives of the study were to investigate socio-cultural factors that influence pupils‟ wastage in public primary schools in Keiyo South Sub County. Specific Objectives of the study were: to identify the socio-cultural factors that influence pupil‟s wastage, explain the influence of socio-cultural factors on pupil‟s wastage, identify institutional factors that influence pupil‟s wastage and to explain the influence of institutional factors on pupil‟s wastage. The study was based on systems theory as postulated by Bertalanffy, which explains the relationship between inputs and outputs of the school system. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The target population comprised of head teachers, class teachers and pupils of public primary schools in Keiyo South Sub County. Stratified sampling technique was used to select schools where the strata were based on school population category. Simple random sampling was used to select the pupils. The sample size comprised of 10 head teachers, 80 class teachers and 200 pupils. The study utilized both primary and secondary data. The research instruments used to collect data were the questionnaire, interview schedule and class registers. The questionnaires were made up of both open and closed-ended questions and were administered by the researcher. The interview schedule was used to collect pupil‟s views collectively, through group interview whereas the class register was used to scrutinize pupils‟ record of school attendance. Data collected was analysed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and specifically the use of frequency and percentages. Data was presented using frequency distribution tables and thematic descriptions. The study findings indicated that while there were so many causes of primary school pupil‟s wastage, poverty was the main cause. The study recommends that pro-active implementation of the policies geared towards a Universal free primary education be enforced and incentives that motivates pupils for example school feeding programmes be initiated or reinstated so that school enrolments go up. The study will inform and serve as a guide to education managers in policy directions towards addressing primary school pupils‟ wastage in the country.
