Madiha Salim Khamis, Mwaura Kimani, Philomena Ndambuki

ABSTRACT

Attitude is as a result of personal experience and is influenced by social norms. It determinees how learners perceive, interact and respond to the learning environment. The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) performance plays an important role in determining the educational pathways of students. Those who excel are able to join institutions of higher learning and become valuable human resource who are able to ignite economic and social development in Kenya. The declining level of KCSE performance in Mombasa County is a cause for concern among education stakeholders; the study therefore seeks to address this concern by finding out if there is a relationship between attitude towards education and students KCSE performance in Mombasa County, Kenya.The study adopted correlational and exploratory research designs. It was conducted in Mombasa in all the six sub counties namely Mvita, Kisauni, Nyali, Jomvu, Changamwe and Likoni. The target population was 8648 form four students who did there KCSE in the year 2018 in 126 secondary schools, 126 academic Masters and Mistresses and six sub county Directors of education. Purposive sampling was used to select 864 students 21 academic Masters/Mistresses and six sub county Directors of Education. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to divide the student population to private and public. The two categories were further stratified to sub groups that included; boys’ day schools, girls’ day schools, boys’ boarding schools, girls’ boarding schools, mixed day schools and mixed boarding schools. Validity of the instruments was ascertained by ensuring that the instruments used in the study were in line with the study objectives. Reliability was verified by using test-retest method and was confirmed to be 0.799. Instruments for data collection comprised of students’ questionnaires, KCSE examination score sheets, semi structured interviews for the academic Masters/Mistresses and for the sub county Directors of education. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Quantitative data was analysed with aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 20 and qualitative data applied thematic analysis. Data was described using means, frequencies and percentages while all the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient. Correlation analysis illustrates a positive and significant relationship between attitude towards education (r=0.359, N=864. p<0.001) and students’ performance in KCSE.Recommendations includes school counselling interventions to improve performance, promotion of formative learning and nurturing students’ attitude in order that they can excel in school.

Keywords: KCSE, Mombasa, Performance, Attitude