Abstract:
Agriculture, a subject whose choice by secondary school students has been declining year
after year, has been offered in secondary schools in Kenya for many years. It is an
examinable subject in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination and a
career subject in various post-secondary educational institutions. The objective of this study
was to determine the influence of selected factors on the choice of agriculture among
secondary school students in Kisii and Nyamira Counties. The objectives were; to determine
the influence of teaching methods on the choice of agriculture among students in secondary
schools, to establish the influence of gender on the choice of agriculture among students in
secondary schools, to investigate the influence of students’ attitude on the choice of
agriculture in secondary schools, and to examine the influence of school financing on the
choice of agriculture among students in secondary schools. The study used cross-sectional
survey design. Questionnaire was used to collect data. The study targeted form four
agriculture students and agriculture teachers. A sample of 352 respondents was used. Simple
random sampling was used to sample agriculture teachers and students,while stratified
sampling was used to sample 22 schools.Data were analysed using both quantitative and
qualitative approaches: For the former, descriptive statistics including frequencies,
percentages, means, and standard deviations were used, and inferential statistics-specifically
Pearson Correlation-was used to establish relationships among variables.Qualitative data, on
the other hand, were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. The findings show that methods
employed by teachers in the teaching of agriculture have an influence on the choice of the
subject by students; students’ attitude influence the choice of the subject; but school finances
and gender have no statistical influence on the choice of agriculture. It was also found out
that parents, teachers, and the ministry of education have an influence on the choice of
agriculture. The study recommended that teachers be monitored well in syllabus delivery so
as to employ proper teaching methods to enable proper implementation of the curriculum.
The study further recommended strengthening of career guidance and counselling to create
awareness of career opportunities available to enable more female students choose the
subject. In addition, the study recommended that students be mentored well for this will see
attitude change towards agriculture. Lastly the ministry of education to increase funding to
schools to enable procurement of enough teaching and learning materials for agriculture.
