Status Of Household Disposable Income And Its Impact On Students’ Participation In Public Day Secondary Schools In Makueni County, Kenya

This study aimed at investigating the status of the household disposable income and its impacts on the students’ participation in public day secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. This study was guided by the following objectives: to determine the influence of household disposable income on students’ school and class attendance; to establish the influence of household disposable income on students’ class assignment completion; to find out the influence of household disposable income on students’ homework completion; and to examine the influence of income on students’ extra-curricular involvement in day secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. Herzberg’s two-factor theory was used to guide the study. Correlational design was used to show the relationship between household disposable income and student’s participation. The study targeted 38,651 students from 250 day secondary schools in Makueni County. All parents as represented by the P.T. A. members were also targeted. From the 250 public day secondary schools, simple random sampling of ten percent (10%) of schools was used to select twenty five (25) schools. A total of 450 students were randomly sampled to participate in the study. Purposive sampling method was finally used to select 50 parents who were presented by PTA members. Questionnaires and interviews schedules were used to collect data.A Pilot study was conducted in two neighbouring day secondary schools before the actual study. Validity and reliability of research instruments were conducted through piloting. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze data. Quantitative data was edited, entered into a computer and analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package in Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. The findings were presented using tables, graphs and pie charts. Percentages and frequencies were used to discuss the findings. Cross tabulations were used to show the relationship that existed between household disposable income level and class attendance, assignment completion, homework completion and students’ engagement in extracurricular activities. For qualitative data, the data were organized into relevant themes, reported in using direct speech and discussed as per the research objectives. The findings revealed that majority of the parents were living under poverty level. Household disposable income level significantly affected school attendance, completion of homework, and completion of class assignments among students in secondary.