ABSTRACT

School attendance is seen as one of the measures to ensure that all school going children are in school. Children’s poor school attendance is not just a Kenyan predicament but rather a global concern. The Kenyan government in the recent past has put in a lot of efforts to ensure attendance of all school children with the introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) in the year 2003. Despite these efforts, there have been few studies carried out in Kibera to establish how socio-economic status of parents influence pre-primary school children’s attendance. Much of what has been documented has concentrated on both primary and secondary schools in general. The purpose of this study was to establish how parents’ socio-economic status influence pre-primary school children’s school attendance in Kibera informal settlement. The study was guided by Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation. Three hundred parents and sixty teachers of sixty pre-primary schools within Kibera Sub County were sampled using multistage sampling method. Data was collected using observation checklists and questionnaires. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was utilized prepared and organized data for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data to determine relationship between parent’s socio-economic status and school attendance. Results were presented in frequencies and percentages and presented in bar-graphs, pie-charts and tables. The findings revealed that large number of parents and guardians were employed in non-formal sector where they were engaged in petty business which they earned very  little income and others. Majority of the parents had an income level below five thousand shillings (5000) per month implying that majority of the parents who participated in the study were living under poverty level and it might be hard for parents to adequately get involved in their children’s education at such early stages of growth and development. The study concluded that occupation and economic status greatly influence individuals to either involve their children in home chores and other business activities or to provide educational needs of their children. The study recommended that local government at ward level to advice parents to cooperate with school administration through close supervision of their children regular school attendance for better academic progress through balancing of domestic chores with studies at home.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

            Introduction

This chapter presents the background to the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, objectives of the study, research questions and significance of the study. This chapter also highlights delimitations and limitations of the study, assumptions, theoretical and conceptual framework and operational definition of terms.

               Background to the Study

Children’s regular school attendance is seen as one of the measures to ensure that all school going children are in school. A pattern in attendance can emerge in kindergarten, where prolonged absenteeism begins to take its toll, especially among children from the less privileged families. A display of this attribute as early as kindergarten can be an accurate prediction of educational achievement levels in future years (Buchmann 2000)).

As children grow into youth, the accumulated health brands begin to affect the economic status of individuals and families, so that the causal relationship runs from health to socioeconomic status, through accumulation of education investment,  greater participation in labor force and increases in labor productivity (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002).

Various treaties and declarations have recognised Education as a basic human right at the international level. The Universal Declaration of human rights the United Nations

Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). It is on basis of these international treaties that states, including Kenya, are committed to provision of education to citizens. The declaration of the Millennium Development Goals is the latest international commitment in which achieving Universal Primary Education (MDG 2) is one of the key commitments.

Education for all global monitoring report (GMR) 2013/14 states that there is increasing participation in early childhood care and education globally. This is still limited and unequal between various regions of the world in most of the developing countries, ECDE programs are through private initiatives or charity-supported and they mainly concentrate in urban areas. Many countries are yet to assume responsibility for pre-primary education and prioritize ECDE in their education strategies, laws and investments. The GMR 2013/2014 suggests that ECDE is the foundation set in the first thousand days of a child’s life from conception to the second birthday – this being a very critical age in a child’s future and well-being.

Research shows that health contributes a lot towards children’s poor school attendance (Spiess, Büchel & Wagner, 2003). As income increase, individuals invest in better diets, improve sanitation and allocate more resources to health care, thereby improving their health human capital. As they become healthier, their SES improves since they are less susceptible to diseases, more energetic, more productive and worker longer and command higher earnings (Thomas, 2009). At the individual level, health and SES drive each other. Thomas (2009) observes that there is a strong inter- generational correlation in education and SES, such that children born of parents with

lower SES have lower educational attainment in adulthood.These factors, along with lower teacher expectancies and poorer academic-readiness skills, also appear to contribute to lower levels of school attendance among children from low SES families (McLoyd, 2008). Further research evidence showed that children with poor oral health status were nearly 3 times more likely than were their counterparts to miss school as a result of dental pain. School absenteeism caused by pain were associated with poorer school performance (Jackson, Vann, Jr, Kotch, Pahel, & Lee, 2011).

A study by Nielsen (2008), in Zambia aimed at establishing the factors that were causing poor school attendance. Findings indicated that among the potential causes of poor attendance were child labour. Different factors in the model influence the child labour and schooling choice. Based on the results, sensitization, narrowly targeting subsidies or stipends were suggested as a remedy to at-risk families in selected provinces aimed at encouraging children to be sent back to school (Nielsen, 2008).

Research studies in Tanzania for instance, established that children were not attending school as expected of them as far as age is concerned. Oster and Thornton (2011) carried out a study to find out the authenticity of menstruation and lack of sanitary products as barriers to girls’ schooling as cited by policy-makers. The findings showed that the causes of children missing schools was beyond the stated factors and went beyond family related factors. Therefore the need for more studies to establish which may be the other contributing factors such as the family Socio economic factors.

Similar situation of poor school attendance by school going children was witnessed in Brazil. Research findings by Duryea & Arends-Kuenning (2003), how that child labour is the major cause of school going children not attending school. According to

the study, it was established that children preferred local labour markets to schools as they saw them more favourable. Duryea & Arends-Kuenning (2003) further assert  that the relationship between children’s schooling and work and local labour market conditions changes in years of crisis compared to other years. Furthermore, the effects of macroeconomic fluctuations on children’s school and work behaviour are major reasons that very many school going children are not in school.

This situation is much common in the Kenyan context where very many children are missing school despite the government massive efforts in ensuring that all Kenyan school going children attend school (Republic of Kenya, 2010, 2012). Such efforts are evident with the devolution of ECDE to County government as per the Kenya constitution 2010 and the introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) in the year 2003(Oketch & Ngware, 2012, Republic of Kenya, 2005a, 2005b). \

Despite the contribution of government subsidies through the FPE research shows gains in children’s enrolment, primary children and mostly the ones living in urban informal settlement areas (Sifuna, 2004; WERK, 2009).In addition, although the right to basic education was pronounced as a constitutional right in Kenyan constitution 2010, studies show that, more than 1 million school going children were out of school (Sifuna, 2004). For example a survey conducted by Daraja Civic Initiatives Forum in Kibera and Korokocho informal settlements indicate that up to 48 % of school age children are not attending school (Daraja, 2006). The poor regular school attendance is a cause of worries and concerns to many stakeholders in Kibera and other parts of informal settlements as it is likely to impact on the implementation and achievement of Universal Primary Education.

            Statement of the Problem

With the promulgation of the Kenyan constitution in 2010, ECDE was devolved to the County governments ’commitment and support in the direction of providing Free Compulsory Basic Education to all Kenyan school age children. However, despite all these efforts, the emerging concern is the capacity of the counties to effectively manage the challenge of unreliable data in terms of attendance, number of schools and the number of teachers in the counties.