Influence of Self-Concept on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Rongo Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Academic achievement among students in various countries has been of great concern and there has been low academic performance of secondary school students in Rongo Sub-County, Kenya which has influenced the career choices of the students from the Sub-County negatively. Students in most cases are not able to pursue careers of their choices in tertiary institutions due to low entry grades. The purpose of the study was therefore to investigate the influence of selected personal variable on academic Performance of secondary school students in Rongo Sub-County. The objectives of the study were: To find out the influence of self-concept on academic performance. Person-centered Theory of Rodgers was used to inform the study. A sequential explanatory research design was employed with a sample size of 46 form four students, 23 teacher counsellors in 7 Public Secondary schools. The population comprised of 460 form four students from 7 Public Secondary Schools, 23 teacher counselors from 23 Public Secondary Schools. Simple random sampling was used to select student participants; stratified sampling was used to select secondary schools while purposive sampling was used to select teacher counselors. Self-Concept Questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data while qualitative data was collected using interviews. Validity of the questionnaires was ensured through expert judgment by university lecturers while reliability of the instruments were ensured through Cronbach alpha and a reliability coefficient of r=0.7513 was reported. Quantitative data was analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlations. Qualitative data was analysed using Thematic Analysis. The results indicated a strong positive relationship of r = 0.794; p<0.05 between self-concept and students' academic performance. Teacher counselors should utilize appropriate therapy techniques to help students with negative and low self-concept to improve in academics. The Teachers Service Commission -Kenya can use the findings to advice its teachers on the best ways of handling learners with different self-concept in a manner that can motivate them to achieve their full academic potentials.