Level of Access to the School Farm and the Acquisition of Agricultural Skills Among Secondary School Students in Malava Sub-County, Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

One of the objectives of teaching Agriculture at the secondary school level is to equip learners with practical agricultural skills as this is considered one of the ultimate panacea to addressing unemployment and food insecurity. The school farm is considered a necessity in the teaching and learning of Agriculture for acquisition of practical skills. This study aimed at establishing the relationship between access to the school farm and the level of acquisition of agricultural skills among secondary school students. Correlational research design was adopted. The study targeted 1532 secondary school teachers and 4327 form three students in Malava Sub-County. The accessible population comprised of the 171 teachers of Agriculture and 2532 form three Agriculture students. Based on Nassiuma formula, 15 schools were sampled. Based on the Yamane formula, 150 form three students of Agriculture were sampled. One Agriculture teacher was selected from each of the sampled school. Questionnaires and an observation guide were used to gather data. A pilot study was carried out in Khwisero Sub-County to determine the instruments' reliability where Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 and 0.72 was obtained for the agriculture teachers and students’ questionnaires respectively. Reliability of the observation guide was determined qualitatively by discussing the items with the supervisors. Chi-square test of relationship was used to analyse the findings of this study aided by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. The study established that level of access to the school farm had a significant relationship to the level of agricultural skill acquisition among the students. Based on the findings, the study recommended that to enhance level of access to the school farm especially during lesson time, more time needs to be allocated to Agriculture on the timetable by the Ministry of Education.