Mitigating Educational Disruption in Kenya: Analyzing Home-Based Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examines students' support and confidence in schoolwork during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya. Doing so contributes to a smaller research gap concerning student support. Bourdieus's theory of social reproduction (cultural and social capital) served as the theoretical foundation for selecting variables in this study. This quantitative research study used secondary data from Responds to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS)2021; 910 student samples were used to analyse the data. Three aspects were examined:(1) Home-based support, (2) support from teachers, and (3) support from others concerning the socioeconomic status of students. The result shows that 41.3 % of Kenyan students reported having “no one” available to help at least sometimes in their schoolwork, and 58.7 % reported that they never had anyone available to help. In other words, at least sometimes, most students have someone to help them with their schoolwork. Again, the result showed that students from high SES backgrounds received greater home-based support than students from medium and low socioeconomic backgrounds. The study found a significant difference between high, medium, and low in students' SES. The result further indicates a strong association between students from high SES regarding the the support they received and confidence in their schoolwork.