Abstract: Overcrowding is defined to be the total number of persons in a unit, regardless of unit size; the ratio of persons to floor space in square feet; and the person-to-size ratio adjusted for household composition, structure type, location, or lot size. It is believed that failure to adequately meet the housing need might have led to the children’s low participation in the early year’s education and subsequently affecting other levels of education in Meru County and the country at large. It is for this reason, that this study was designed. It will document the extent to which, children’s housing need, and in particular, the crowding aspect, is addressed in Meru County. This is because large number children, 52% of them in the early year’s education age levels did not participate in the early year’s education. The main objective of this study was to establish the relationship between household size and participation in early year’s education. The independent variable was household size. The dependent variable was children’s participation in early year’s education. The target population for this study comprised 78, 201 school age going children of early years education level from whom an actual sample size of 390 children was selected and their parents participated in the study. Children’s households were systematically sampled whereas Meru County was sampled purposively. The researcher administered the questionnaire to parents of children at the age of early year’s education. Those who participated in the early year’s education and those who did not participate in the early year’s education were considered for the study. The t-test (two tailed) for testing equality of means for independent samples was used to test H01 a t-test (two tailed) for independent samples found no relationship between household size and participation in early years education. This study concludes that housing need is important and unless it is met we will continue to have large numbers of children at the age for early year’s education not participating in this education continuing to multiply.
Keywords: Early year’s education, household size, household overcrowding, education, participation in learning, family type, covid era.
Title: WHAT IS HOUSEHOLD CROWDING? AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT CHILDREN’S ENROLMENT RATES IN THE EARLY YEAR’S EDUCATION (EYE): THE CASE OF KENYA IN THE COVID ERA
Author: Catherine Gakii Murungi
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
Research Publish Journals
