School Factors Lowering Completion Rates Of Adult Basic Education Learners In Nyamira County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Adult literacy covers individuals of age 15 years and beyond. Its fundamental aim is to offer survival and literacy skills to adults who may have not gone through formal Education. In spite of the importance of adult basic education, the Kenya National Adult Literacy Survey (KNALS, 2010), exposed 61.50% of the adult population had managed to get minimum literacy level, leaving 38.50% adults illiterate. It also revealed that only 29.60% of the Kenyan adult population had managed a desired mastery literacy competency. From the statistics above, it’s evident that adult basic education programme is still facing a lot of challenges and it was for this reason that this study investigated the school factors lowering the completion rate of adult basic learners in Nyamira South-Sub County, Kenya. The researcher sought to establish the enrolment pattern of learners, find out their completion rates and the factors lowering their completion rates, and then suggest possible ways of enhancing completion rates in Nyamira South Sub -County, Kenya. System theory was used in the study to explain and understand the school factors lowering completion rate of adult basic learners. The study adopted exploratory approach using the descriptive survey design. The study was carried out among basic adult basic education learners in Nyamira South Sub -County, Kenya. This was a perfect locale because it was in a rural setting representing majority of Kenyans. The target population of the study was drawn from the 24 basic adult literacy centers in Nyamira South Sub-County where the representatives were, director of adult education, 29 teachers and 600 learners. Simple random sampling was used to select the sample size of 10 centres and 60 adult basic learners, while 29 teachers were purposively sampled and the sub county education officer included in the study. Questionnaires for teachers, interview schedule for adult education officer, focus group discussion guide for learners and observation checklists were the main tools for data collection. Qualitative data was analyzed using descriptions that involved making sense out of narration and written texts while quantitative data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentages. Analysed data has been presented by use of tables. The findings revealed that 60% of learners dropped out of school because of; poor physical resources, lack of teaching and learning resources, inadequacy of teachers and unfriendly teaching methods. The study concluded that most adult centres were still facing challenges that have attributed to poor completion rates in Nyamira South. The government should establish secondary schools for adult basic learners to acquire certificates to join college. The government should also allocate more funds and adequate personnel to adult education program to enable smooth learning in schools. Adult basic education is vital for out of school learners to acquire knowledge hence, comprehensive study on a larger sample using qualitative approach should be done in order to improve and bring more understanding on the school factors lowering completion rates of adult basic education learners.