Evaluation of the Impact of Household Characteristics on the Performance of the Boy Child in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in Mathioya, Murang‟a County, Kenya

Persistent campaign for awareness of girl‟s retention in school has started bearing fruits, but in retrospect the society has ignored the plight of boy-child. The issue of the Boy-Child has not been adequately addressed (World Bank, 2005). Extensive analysis of data indicates that boy-child is at a higher risk of not performing well in class compared to girls. The trend of more boys dropping out of school and registering a decline in performance in national examinations in Kenya started with a cohort comprising of 620,000 boys and 586,000 girls that joined standard one in 2005. By 2010, survival rate in the group had dropped to 558,000 boys and 562,000 girls. Never before had enrolment of girls in any primary school grade nationally had exceeded that of boys (UNESCO, 2003).This impedes the achievement of Universal Primary Education which is a Millennium Development Goal that by 2015 ensure that all boys and girls alike complete primary schooling. This study sought to examine the problems that hinder the boy child from achieving their dream as revealed in the transition rates from primary to secondary schools in Murang‟a County. It identified the challenges to the achievement of Education for All and proposed positive actions for the mitigation of the situation. While the Kenyan government is providing direct grants to secondary schools through Free Secondary Education (FSE) financing scheme, internal efficiency challenges in form of low access and retention continue to be pervasive. The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent household characteristics influenced the performance of the boy child in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in public secondary schools of Murang‟a County. The study objectives included evaluating household characteristics and impact they had on education of the boy child in Murang‟a County secondary schools; to determine the economic, marital status of the parent, number of siblings and household religious orientation. The study also sought to establish measures that could be put in place to improve performance in public secondary schools in the county. The study adopted mixed methods to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively using frequency counts and percentages. The findings of this study drew conclusions in regard to education policy makers and other stakeholders to formulate strategies that could be used to mitigate the many challenges the boy child is facing and promote better examination performance at secondary level.