Influence of Child Labour and Family Background

The Government of Kenya has provided Free Primary Education and increased resource allocation to enhance its delivery. The trend in school enrollment has been impressive but with concerns regarding retention and attendance. Although the national data on primary school completion indicated higher number of boys than girls in the year 2010, the opposite was recorded in Nakuru Municipality. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of child labour and family background on school attendance among boys in public primary schools in Western Division of Nakuru municipality in Kenya. The study was carried out amongst the boys in Standard V to VIII and findings revealed positive correlation between child labour and parental background with school attendance of the boys. Following these findings the study made recommendations to all relevant stakeholders in education to consider developing and implementing strategies aimed at managing and addressing the challenges of boys’ school attendance. The findings of this study may provide essential information to schools, parents and other stakeholders in the education sector to enable them find ways of retaining boys in school.