Child Labour and Girls’ Primary School Completion: Evidence from Public Schools in Bangale Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Provision of quality education for every child remains a key global and national priority. Despite national efforts to promote gender parity in education, the completion rates for girls in public primary schools in marginalized regions in Kenya remain alarmingly low. Although research has been extensively carried out and girls' primary education completion rates, extant empirical research has minimally focused on child labor and girls' primary education. Therefore, this study sought to bridge that gap by investigating child labor and girls' primary education completion rates in public primary schools within Bangale Sub-County. The study adopted both positivism and interpretivism paradigms, as it adopted a survey research design and employed mixed methods. The target population comprised all the 25 public primary schools in Bangale Sub-County where the unit of enquiry comprised the; 29 head teachers, 250 teachers, and 900 parents, all totalling 1,208. Purposive sampling was used to select 8 schools and their corresponding 8 head while simple random sampling was used to select 35 teachers and 100 parents. A semi-structured questionnaire was used as the primary data collection. Instrument validity was tested for validity using expert opinions and supervisor review, while reliability was tested using internal consistency based on Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.7 threshold.  The quantitative data was analyzed to provide descriptive statistics and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson r) was used for examining the association between child labour and girls' primary education completion rates. The qualitative responses were analyzed thematically to identify patterns, explanations, and meanings that may not have emerged from quantitative data alone. The study found that child labor has a significantly effect on girls' primary education completion rates with a coefficient of correlation, r = -0.514. These findings are expected to inform policy-makers, education stakeholders, and future researchers on targeted interventions to enhance girls' retention and completion in primary education, particularly in marginalized settings.