Abstract |
The Government of Kenya is committed to increasing access and provision of quality education. The introduction of Free Primary education (FPE) in 2003 and Free Secondary Education (FSE) in 2008 increased secondary school gross enrolment from 42 in 2003 to 60.17 in 2009. However, these two policies have increased enrolment and transition rates to secondary education and the situation is likely to exert pressure on the limited teaching/learning facilities, a situation likely to limit performance and the development of talent since the Ministry of Education (MOE) does not allow head teachers to charge additional levies to expand related infrastructure. On this backdrop, the current study examined the role of school infrastructure on talent development among secondary school students in Kisumu municipality, Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey and correlational research designs. The target population included 24 secondary school head teachers, 24 heads of department in charge of co-curricular activities and 2523 form three students. Saturated sampling was used to select 22 head teachers and 22 heads of department in charge of co-curricular activities while systematic sampling was used to select 345 form three students. Data was collected through questionnaires and focus group discussions. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as the means, frequency count, percentages and Pearson correlation(r) while qualitative data was organized according to themes as they emerged. The findings show that there was strong positive correlation coefficient between school infrastructure and the development of talent among secondary school students of r=0.861. From the above findings, it was concluded that, the number, state and size of school infrastructure highly influenced talent development. The study recommends that education stakeholders should develop their infrastructure to tap and train students’ talents and the legal document governing the necessary infrastructure in a school should be revised. |