Effect of Curriculum on Career Choices of Secondary school Students in Hamisi Sub County, Vihiga County-Kenya

Abstract

The critical issue to relate subjects selected at form three to the course students intend to pursue after school has not been adequately addressed in Kenyan secondary schools. Most students are entirely left on their own and enroll for studies they know little or nothing about. This has been revealed by studies that indicate that most students enter into careers that are totally different from the ones they chose while in secondary school or not in line with the subjects they did while in secondary school. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of subjects offered in secondary schools on career choices amongst students in Hamisi Sub County. The specific objective of the study was; to determine the relationship between subjects offered in secondary school and career choices among secondary school students. The study was guided by the social Learning Theory of Career Decision Making that was proposed by Krumboltz in 1976. The study adopted a survey design. A population of 409 students randomly selected from Hamisi Sub County was used and data collected using questionnaires. Responses from all items were coded and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v.22.0) computer package for statistical analysis at 95% level of significance testing ( α= 0.05).Data was analyzed descriptively using percentages and inferentially using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Chi-Square. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize and describe study data while inferential statistics were used to deduce relationship between and among study constructs. After analysis, research findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between subjects offered at secondary school and career choice of students in Hamisi Sub County. It was recommended that the government should support all schools with required resources to enable them offer all subjects provided for in the curriculum.