Factors Influencing Choice of Technical Subjects among the Secondary School Graduates in Kenya

Abstract

Provision of technical subjects in secondary schools is part of an effort by the Kenya government to equip secondary school graduates (SSG’s) with technical and entrepreneurial skills. This is aimed at assisting the graduates who miss out on higher education to easily transit to the world of work. We ran a Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) on a data from a sample of 186 teachers and 393 SSG’s (SSG’s) in order to determine the factors influencing the choice of technical subjects among the SSG’s in Kenya. The study was carried out in Mombasa and Bungoma counties with the SSG’s of 2009, 2010 and 2011.We established that; school type, gender, parents’ occupation, the school location and whether students are told the subject objectives or not were the main driving factors that influenced the choice of technical subjects at school level. We recommend that adequate academic and career guidance and counseling should be given to students before they select subjects in schools. Efficient guidance and counseling departments should therefore be set up in schools to render appropriate academic and career counseling services to students.