Availability of School-based Psychosocial Support Programs on Fire Disaster Preparedness in Secondary Schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Fire is a common disaster affecting Education in Secondary Schools in Kenya. This research was motivated by the frequent reports of occurrence of fire disasters in secondary schools. The purpose of the study was to investigate the level of fire disaster preparedness in Secondary Schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study was done in in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. One of the objectives of the study was to investigate the availability of school-based psychosocial support in secondary schools as one of the interventions to reduce fire disasters in secondary schools. Descriptive research design was employed to collect data on what, when, where, and how. The research adopted stratified random sampling to acquire a sample. The target population of this study included 166 public secondary schools, 1792 teachers, 166 principals, and 2,732 students. The data was collected from a sample of 117 secondary schools, 117 school principals, 327 teachers and 349 students. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected through questionnaires and observation checklist respectively. The data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and thematic analysis for qualitative data. The study established that schools lacked proper implementation of both students’ and teachers’ psychosocial interventions to reduce fire disasters in secondary schools in Uasin Gishu County. Therefore, psychosocial fire disaster preparedness had not been met. It recommended that schools should incorporate psychosocial interventions, some of which include: guidance and counselling as a mitigating strategy for mass indiscipline, strongly discourage corporal punishment and use of abusive and inhumane language by teachers to reduce occurrence of fire disasters in schools.