INFLUENCE OF LEARNERS’ PARTICIPATION IN CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KAPENGURIA DIVISON OF WEST POKOT COUNTY

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of learners’ participation in co-curricular activities on academic performance in public secondary schools in Kapenguria Division of West Pokot County. More specifically, the study was conducted to assess the influence of specific co-curricular activities that are undertaken in public secondary schools, that is, soccer, athletics and music in order to investigate whether participation in those co-curricular activities had an influence on the academic performance of students both positively and negatively. This study employed Astin’s theory of involvement which posits that students learn more when they are involved in both the academic and social aspects of the collegiate experience. The study therefore, adopted the concurrent mixed methods design that sought to process the use of both quantitative and qualitative data. The target population of the study comprised of students, co-curricular activities teachers and principals of public secondary schools in Kapenguria Division of West Pokot County. Students were selected through cluster and stratified sampling, while teachers and principals were selected through purposive sampling because it targeted only co-curricular teachers and principals of the selected schools. Cluster sampling of students was based on girls and boys in their respective schools, whereby, they were put in their homogenous cluster. The basis of stratification was schools in the position of national, extra-county and sub-county schools. Thereafter, simple random sampling was used to select individual respondent. Primary data was collected through questionnaires for students and co-curricular activities teachers, and interview schedules for the principals. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistical tools, that is frequencies, standard deviation and mean and also, SPSS was employed. Three forms of validity were conducted, that is face, content and criterion validity, while reliability of the questionnaire scales was achieved by computing Cronbach’s alpha coefficients on data collected through piloting of developed questionnaire among students and teachers drawn from public secondary schools in the neighbouring Kongelai Division. The overall finding of the current study is that participation in co-curricular activities has potential to influence students’ academic performance in a positive way although other factors play important roles. The influence of co-curricular activities on academic performance could be attributed to its ability to stimulate physical and mental health, social wellbeing and cognitive growth. Several conclusions were made regarding learner participation in co-curricular activities and their academic performance as follows: public secondary schools in Kapenguria Division take co-curricular activities seriously knowing their utility in learners’ holistic development; participation in athletics stimulate fine and gross motor growth, learner concentration and cognitive development; participation in soccer has a positive influence on academic performance and has potential to stimulate learner concentration in academic disciplines; participation in music influences learners’ communication skills. The study suggests that schools to create more fields to allow various co-curricular activities take place, teachers too should encourage learners to choose at least one co-curricular activity, also co-curricular activities should be embraced if talents are to be fully exploited in learners, and the study recommends that similar studies should be replicated in public secondary schools in other divisions in the County so as to improve on generalizability of the findings. Therefore, the finding of this research study will help community, parents, teachers, principals and educational officers in enhancing students’ educational achievements at secondary schools in West Pokot County and Kenya at large.