Influence of Institutional Characteristics on Learners’ Academic Achievement in Selected Public Day Secondary Schools in Kenya

Rapid growth in Education as an investment has necessitated and heightened interest in the determination of institutional influence on Learners’ Academic Achievement in Kenya. This is observed in regular Curriculum reforms in the recent past to align the curriculum to learners’ academic aspirations. This study sought to determine the extent to which teachers’ characteristics and teaching learning resources influence students’ academic achievement as measured by the Mean Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination score and grade. The sample size of 109 Teachers and 384 Learners was obtained from the targeted population of 2830 people. Ex-post Facto Design and Correlational Design were adopted in the investigation. Questionnaires for teachers and learners, interviews schedule and document analysis were utilized to gather data. The Questionnaire instrument reliability co–efficient of 0.8 for Teachers and 0.75 for Learners was obtained following a pre-test based on split half technique. Inferential and Descriptive statistics using Chi square interactive facilitated data analysis. The study showed that favourable institutional factors positively correlates with learners’ academic achievement and vice versa. The study recommended that Day school learning facilities and teacher-student ratio be improved as this will facilitate attainment of a higher mean score by learners in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations. Keywords: Institutional Characteristics, Students’ Academic Achievement. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-3-06 Publication date: January 31st 202

Teacher Motivational Strategies on Students’ Academic Performance in Day Secondary Schools in Saboti Sub-County,

Teachers motivation has become an important issue given their responsibility to impart knowledge and skills to learners. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of teacher motivation strategies on the students’ performance in day secondary schools of Saboti Sub-County, Trans Nzoia County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to establish how staff development, recognition, advancement and incentives influence students’ academic performance in day secondary schools.  This study was conducted in 20 day secondary schools. The study was limited to the information the respondents gave. Simple stratified sampling technique was used for sampling with each stratum being represented by a sample size using the Kreijcie and Morgan table of sample determination.The data collection instrument was the questionnaire which was tested for validity and reliability before being used in the study. Structured questionnaires were administered to the teachers and head teachers of the day secondary schools in Saboti Sub-County. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).The findings of the study were that most teachers lacked motivation in their work and this accounts for the low performance in these schools. Motivation strategies such as recognition, training and development, incentives and career advancement were minimal in the schools. The study recommends that a variety of motivational strategies be consistently employed by the Teachers Services Commission to enhance teachers’ morale and subsequently students’ academic performance. Keywords: Teacher, Motivational Strategy, Students, Academic Performance DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-12-01 Publication date: April 30th 202

Effects of feeding varying levels of fufu sieviate meal based diets with Panicum maximum basal on the blood characteristics of West African dwarf goats

The effects of fufu sieviate meal based diets at 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% levels using Panicum maximum as the basal on the haematological and serum biochemical parameters of West African dwarf (WAD) goats were studied for 87 days. Thirty six blood samples were collected from the WAD goats and their haematological and serum biochemical indices were determined using Beckman Coulter Ac-T10 Laboratory Haematology Blood Analyzer and Bayer DCA 2000+ HbA1c analyzer, respectively using a completely randomized design. Packed cell volume (PCV) was better (p<0.05) at T1 than the other treatments. Red Blood Cell (RBC) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) were numerically improved at T2, T3 and T4 than in the control group while lymphocyte increased significantly (P<0.05) with increasing levels of the test ingredient. Results on serum biochemical indices showed that serum urea, creatinine, glucose and ALP differed significantly (P<0.05) and tended to be higher in the treatment (T2, T3 and T4)groups than the control group. The study therefore revealed that inclusion of fufu sieviate in the diets of West African Dwarf goats had no deleterious effects on the haematological and serum biochemical parameters of WAD goats and could be included up to 60% in goat diets

Effects of Feeding Varying Levels of Fufu Sieviate Meal Based Diets with Panicum Maximum Basal on the Blood Characteristics of West African Dwarf Goats

The effects of fufu sieviate meal based diets at 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% levels using Panicum maximum as the basal on the haematological and serum biochemical parameters of West African dwarf (WAD) goats were studied for 87 days. Thirty six blood samples were collected from the WAD goats and their haematological and serum biochemical indices were determined using Beckman Coulter Ac-T10 Laboratory Haematology Blood Analyzer and Bayer DCA 2000+ HbA1c analyzer, respectively using a completely randomized design. Packed cell volume (PCV) was better (p<0.05) at T1 than the other treatments. Red Blood Cell (RBC) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) were numerically improved at T2, T3 and T4 than in the control group while lymphocyte increased significantly (P<0.05) with increasing levels of the test ingredient. Results on serum biochemical indices showed that serum urea, creatinine, glucose and ALP differed significantly (P<0.05) and tended to be higher in the treatment (T2, T3 and T4)groups than the control group. The study therefore revealed that inclusion of fufu sieviate in the diets of West African Dwarf goats had no deleterious effects on the haematological and serum biochemical parameters of WAD goats and could be included up to 60% in goat diets

Effects of feeding varying levels of fufu sieviate meal based diets with Panicum maximum basal on the blood characteristics of West African dwarf goats

The effects of fufu sieviate meal based diets at 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% levels using Panicum maximum as the basal on the haematological and serum biochemical parameters of West African dwarf (WAD) goats were studied for 87 days. Thirty six blood samples were collected from the WAD goats and their haematological and serum biochemical indices were determined using Beckman Coulter Ac-T10 Laboratory Haematology Blood Analyzer and Bayer DCA 2000+ HbA1c analyzer, respectively using a completely randomized design. Packed cell volume (PCV) was better (p<0.05) at T1 than the other treatments. Red Blood Cell (RBC) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) were numerically improved at T2, T3 and T4 than in the control group while lymphocyte increased significantly (P<0.05) with increasing levels of the test ingredient. Results on serum biochemical indices showed that serum urea, creatinine, glucose and ALP differed significantly (P<0.05) and tended to be higher in the treatment (T2, T3 and T4)groups than the control group. The study therefore revealed that inclusion of fufu sieviate in the diets of West African Dwarf goats had no deleterious effects on the haematological and serum biochemical parameters of WAD goats and could be included up to 60% in goat diets