SELECTED SOCIOCULTURAL PRACTICES AND LEARNERS’ ENROLMENT IN HOME SCIENCE: A CASE OF POKOT CENTRAL SUB COUNTY SECONDARY SCHOOLS, KENYA

Abstract

Home Science education is an interdisciplinary area of study which applies science and arts so as to achieve better, healthier and happy homes. In the last five years there has been a decrease in the learners’ enrolment in Home Science in secondary schools of Pokot Central Sub County. This trend of low enrolment has contributed to the challenges facing the community like nutritional deficiency and disorders, domestic strife and broken family relationships. The study sought to establish how the selected socio-cultural practices affect learners’ enrolment in Home Science using a case of secondary schools in Pokot Central Sub-County. Specifically, the study assessed effect of gender roles, initiation rites, community’s perceptions as well as teenage marriage on learners’ enrolment in Home Science. The study sheds light to education stakeholders on the effect of socio-cultural practices on learner enrolment in Home Science. The researcher utilized socio-cultural theories which suggest that social norms and interactions of people living in a given area affect those peoples’ individual behavior and choices. The interaction of learners with their social and cultural environment affects the choice of Home Science subject. The study adopted descriptive design which was suitable in gathering relevant information from a target population of 5079 respondents consisting of 4982 learners from secondary schools, 1 Sub-County Director of Education, and 72 local leaders. Stratified and simple random was used on teachers and students, whereas purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of the sub county director of education and the local leaders. The researcher utilized questionnaires to collect data from teachers and learners, focused group discussions for local leaders. The researcher used interview schedule to collect data from Pokot Central SCDE. Reliability of the instruments was ascertained by conducting a pilot study on 35 learners and two teachers. The results were analyzed and used to compute an acronbach index that yielded an acceptable value of 0.887 for the instruments. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics; frequency counts and percentages while inferential statistics utilized multiple regressions. The SPSS computer program version 22 was used in the analysis and data presented on bar graphs. The results of the study showed that gender roles, was major contributor to low enrolment in Home Science in secondary schools in Pokot Central by 67.1%. The study recommended that concerted efforts by local leaders, Ministry of Education, parents and other stakeholders of education should make effort to stamp out retrogressive socio-cultural practices to boost enrolments in not only Home Science but also in other subjects in schools. Education managers and planners may use the results in coming up with policies and management strategies that will boost enrolment rates in Home Science.