Abstract:
Academic performance have long time been used to determine who continues with education and who does not. Academic performance is also an important selection tool in formal employment. This has made it to take a central place in the activities of educational institutions in Kenya. Grades attained in national examinations have been widely accepted as indicators of good or bad performance. Private primary schools have consistently posted better grades in national examinations than public primary schools. Consequently the pupils in public primary schools are greatly disadvantaged while competing with those from private schools for placement in secondary schools. This study compares factors contributing to academic performance among pupils in private and public primary schools in Mathira Division, Nyeri East District. An ex postfacto casual comparative design will be used in the study. The population consisted of all primary schools in Mathira division, Nyeri East District. A stratified random sample of 34 schools, 272 class teachers and 34 head was selected. The study looked at factors such as teaching resources, teacher pupil ratio, physical facilities, admission criteria and level of teacher qualifications. Data was collected by means of questionnaires and an observation schedule. In order to avoid possible contamination of the study area piloting of the instruments was carried out in a neighbouring division, Nyeri Municipality. Descriptive analysis, including frequencies, percentages, tables and figures are used to analyze and present the research findings. The study found out that private primary schools perform better than public because of their higher qualifications of their teachers, better physical facilities; more motivational factors awarded to teachers; teacher/pupil ratios; teaching resources, and a biased admission criterion. Based on the findings, the study recommends that for public primary schools to compete favourably with private primary schools, there is a need to; provide teachers with a wider range of motivational factors, in service training for teachers, improvement of the physical facilities, provision of more teaching resources and reduction of class size. The results of this study provide essential infonnation on what can be done to make pupils in public primary schools improve their academic performance.
