The study investigated the relationship between household background characteristics and asset portfolios (capital) on students’ academic performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in Baringo County. The study covered students who sat for KCPE in the year 2012. The study was based on one general objective and two specific objectives namely: to investigate the effect of household asset portfolio on student academic achievement in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E); to investigate the household background characteristics of the form one students and how they influence student’s achievement in K.C.P.E.; and to find out how do household asset portfolios (capitals) affect educational achievement of a student in K.C.P.E.
The study used an ex-post facto research design, and relied on both primary and secondary sources of data. Data was collected from form one students’ in Baringo County using systematic random sampling to select student’s from each school to respond to the questionnaires. The data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study too used cross tabulation and Chi square tests to establish relationship between household asset portfolios (capital) and students’ academic performance variables. The relationship was tested at 0.005 level of significance.
The study found that not all household asset portfolios (capital) affect students’ academic performance in KCPE. But some assets more than others have high correlation with academic performance i.e. physical and human capital were highly correlated to high performance than natural and social capital. This could be due to the fact that natural and social capitals are difficult to maintain and manage. The study also found out that household background characteristics have a far reaching effect on student’s academic performance in KCPE. It influences performance either way positive or negative. Through this finding, the study concluded that the higher the asset portfolio of a household, the higher the performance of a student in KCPE and vice versa.
Based on the findings, the study recommends government to create assets and cash transfers to poor households’ replica to cash transfers for the elderly. Secondly the government should increase both liquid and illiquid assets for families to increase their economic well-being through social welfare programs. Thirdly, Adult education should be made free to encourage most of the parents to better their academic qualification; this is because it was found that the level of education of a parent determines the marks a student attains in national examination (KCPE). Lastly, Government should device a way in which students’ from public schools accesses services replica with those of private schools. Such a move would ensure neutrality in doing national exams between students from household with different asset portfolios in society. The study concludes that further research on the effect of household asset portfolios on students’ academic performance should be replicated on a large scale in Kenya and beyond in order to draw wider policy implications from it.