Influence of Family Housing Conditions on Academic Completion Rates of Pupils in Public Primary Schools in Western Province of Rwanda

Abstract

Education is the main agent of change in both developed and developing countries. Family housing conditions have a role to play in the learning process of the siblings. The purpose of this paper was to examine the influence of family housing conditions on academic completion rate of pupils in public primary schools in Western province of Rwanda. The paper tested the hypothesis that there is no statistically significant influence of family housing conditions on academic completion rate of pupils in public primary schools in Western Province of Rwanda. Mixed method research design was employed. The study targeted 96 primary schools making the population of 9127 people including primary six pupils, teachers, headteachers and District directors of education. The Solvin’s sampling formula, Stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the sample size of 384 pupils, 115 teachers, 28 headteachers and 2 DDE. The questionnaires, interview guide and document analysis schedules were used to collect the data. The findings revealed that the distance used to get clean water; the size of family house and the source of power (light & heat) used show the highest influence on pupils ‘completion rates. The majority of teachers’ responses at 82.9% agreed that family housing conditions influence grade scores and completion rate of pupils in Western province of Rwanda. However, the computed linear regression shows that there is no statistically significant influence of family housing conditions on the completion rate of pupils in public schools as indicated by the critical values of 0.170; 0.552; 0.532; 0.711; 0.282 >p (0.05). It was also revealed that family housing conditions can only explain 3.90% of the pupils’ completion rate in primary schools in Western Province of Rwanda. The study recommends that learning should not solely left to pupils-teachers relationship but it should be extended to include the clear role and active participation of parents. Government should improve social service such as clean water and electricity should be provided to its people and make it available to every household, parents ought to understand and implant family planning programs.

Key words: Family Housing Condition; Academic Completion; Public Primary School.