Effect of secondary school categorization on examination failure rates among public secondary school students in Kenya

Abstract

Secondary schools in Kenya are categorized as national, extra-county, county, sub-county and private secondary schools. Students who excelled in K.C.S.E examination with a minimum grade of C+ are allowed to pursue different courses in public and private universities. Others who scored C and C- grade joined diploma colleges. The paper sought to find out the effect of secondary school categorization on examination failure rates among public secondary schools students in Kenya. The scope of the study was limited to all the students from public secondary schools in the four counties of Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, and Vihiga in Kenya. It was limited to randomly chosen sample size of 464 students, 58 principals, and 58 directors of studies from the 58 sampled out public secondary schools. Wellberg’s (1981) theory of educational productivity was employed. The paper employed mixed methods and survey research design. Data collection instruments included questionnaires, interview schedules, focused group discussions and analysis of secondary data. Content validity was determined through subject matter expert review while reliability was determined through test-retest measures for consistency. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Inferential one was the Kruskal Wallis test. The paper concluded that secondary school categorization led to failure of students in public secondary schools at KCSE examinations in Kenya due to academic inadequacies experienced in sub-county and some county public secondary schools. It was therefore recommended that the classification of students into the four distinct groups of national, Extra County, county and sub county students be abolished