The influence of provision of sanitary pads on teenage girls’dropout rates in ainamoisub-county public primary schools, kericho county, Kenya

Teenage years to every child is challenging emotionally, physically and psychological especially for the girl child. Studies have indicated that three out of ten girls miss school in Africa during their menstruation periods and eventually drop out as a result. This is due to lack sanitary towels due to economic situations in families of which the Kenyan government started providing in 2011. This study established the influence of provision of sanitary pads on Teenage girls’ dropout ratesin Ainamoi sub county, Kericho County, Kenya.Liberal Feminism Theory was adopted in this study. A conceptual framework was formulated to guide the study. The independent variable wasprovision of sanitary pads while the dependent variable is Teenage girls ‘dropout rates in Ainamoi Sub County, Kericho County Kenya.Ex post facto, Descriptive, Correlational and Mixed Method Research design was adopted in the study. The study was in form of quantitative and qualitative research. The Study population consisted of 686 teenage girls, 99head teachers. The sample size was 20 head teachers and 140 teenage girls. Quantitative data wasanalyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Data was collected using questionnaires, focus group discussion, and interview schedule and document analysis. While qualitative was analyzed using themes and sub themes.The study established that there was a moderate relationship between girls drop out and provision of sanitary pads. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficients was 0.496 which account for 24.60% of the variation. The study concluded that provision of sanitary pads reduced dropout rate. It recommend that teenage girls should be provide with sanitary pads to keep them in school.The findings of this study will be significant to stakeholders in education guiding them on ways of improving teenage girls’ academic progression and performance. It will also guide in improving on policies that will help the girl child and protect the girl child to enable them access education comfortably.