Lake Fishing Factors on Pupils School Attendance Pattern in Developing Countries. A Case of Madiany Division, Siaya County Kenya

Abstract

Developing countries education system includes both academic and technical training at primary, secondary and tertiary levels (Ward et al. 2006). Formal primary schooling lasts for eight years and seven years respectively. The paper presents the lake fishing factors on primary school pupils attendance patterns in developing countries with focus to Madiany Division, Siaya County located on the shores of Lake Victoria. The introduction of free primary education in Kenya in 2003 was introduce to map out all children who parents could not afford to pay the school fee and  enable them access and completion basic education but this has not actually been achieved KNEC report 2010. The paper identify school attendance pattern by pupils and determined probable reasons influencing the attendance patterns. The findings presented in this paper shows that pupils attendance patterns to school is not steady and fluctuates based on the gender, age, and class category and lake activities. The attendance rate per year was found to be at 67.35%, girls attended school more (39.8%) compared to boys (27.51%). It was also established that pupils school attendance patterns was most directly influenced by fishing activities that the community living around the lake practice. The paper highlights policy implications on the topic under study.