Impact of violent conflict on secondary school students’ wastage in mount Elgon district, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to establish the impact of violent conflict on secondary school students’ wastage in Mt Elgon District. It was guided by the production function model. The study adopted ex-post facto research design and its universe included 4873 secondary school students, 206 teachers, 28 B.OG Chairmen, 28 PTA Chairmen and 1 DEO, totaling to 5136 people. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were employed to pick a sample of 358 respondents drawn from 15 out of the 28 secondary schools in the district. Various instruments: questionnaires, interview schedules, and document analysis schedules were used to collect data. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially while thematic approach was used to analyze qualitative data. The findings were merged for presentation. The study established that violent conflict adversely impacted on secondary school students’ wastage which was manifested by very high nature and increasing trends of grade dropout rates, grade repeater rates, cohort wastage rates, and very low completer rates between the years 2005 and 2008. It emerged that Kopsiro Division which was the epicenter of violent conflict was the worst hit. It is recommended that the Government and other development partners should offer more sponsorship opportunities to surviving students from families impoverished by violent conflict in the district who risk dropping out of school. Most importantly, the government and community leaders should resolve the land dispute in Mt. Elgon District once and for all in order to avoid perennial disruptions to educational development of the people of Mt. Elgon District.