Institutional and student’s determinants of agriculture performance in public secondary schools in Kuria west sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

Agriculture education remain vital not only at the farm but also trains tomorrow’s scientists, nutritionists and teachers thus performance of the subject lays a yardstick to quality of the graduate’s in the field. Despite the importance of agriculture, students' performance in the subject in KCSE has been declining particularly in Kuria West SubCounty. However, little empirical evidence exists on the institutional and students’ barriers that prevent them from doing well in the subject. The purpose of this study was to determine the institutional and students’ determinants of agriculture performance in public secondary schools. A correlational research design was adopted. The target population for the study was 476 comprising of 384 form four students and 92 teachers. The students were chosen using stratified random sampling. Forty-eight public secondary schools in the sub-county, which correspond to seven electoral wards namely Masaba, Isibania, Makerero, Ikerege, Tagare, Komosoko, and Bukira East were used to choose the respondents. The pilot study was conducted in Ntimaru West Ward in Kuria East Sub-County which neighbours Kuria West Sub-County. The pilot study involved ten teachers and 39 students. The instruments’ face and content validity were assessed by supervisors and colleagues in the area of Agricultural Education. Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine the instrument’s reliability. The Cronbach alpha coefficients for the teachers’ questionnaire variables were students career aspirations (α = 0.849), students’ attitude (α = 0.724), teaching and learning resources (α = 0.777) and teaching methods (α = 0.815). The coefficients of the students’ questionnaire variables were students’ career aspirations (α = 0.763), students’ attitude (α = 0.78) and student performance (α = 0.843). A reliability of 0.7 was considered acceptable. Data analysis involved the use of Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS V25). In order to determine the relationship between students’ career aspiration, students’ attitude, teaching and learning resources, and teaching methods and performance of agriculture subject in public secondary schools, descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficients were utilized. The results indicated that the combined effects of teaching methods, student attitude, learning resources, and career aspirations significantly predicted students' performance in agriculture F (4, 65) = 87.60, p <.05, R2 = .844. There was a strong positive significant correlation between career aspiration and performance (r =.83, p < 0.05) student attitude and performance (r =.82, p < 0.05), learning resources and performance (r =.80, p < 0.05), and teaching methods and performance (r =.83, p < 0.05). The study concluded that teaching methods, student attitude, availability of learning resources, and career aspirations positively improved the performance of students in agriculture in Kuria West. The study recommended that career guidance programs ought to be introduced in schools to help students discover and clarify their aspirations. It is the responsibility of educators and teachers to help students develop a favourable attitude toward agriculture-related disciplines. The government should enhance teachers’ professional development and provide adequate agriculture learning resources to secondary schools to improve the subject performance.