The Influence of the School Climate on the Academic Performance of Form One Students in Dadaab Refugee Camp Kenya

Abstract

The central problem of this study is that, the school climate is a critical aspect of the academic achievement of any student. This psychological construct ranges from the type of school, the nature of the school’s leadership, to the teachers and the relationship of the student to other learners among others. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between school climate and test scores among form ones. The study was guided by Social cognitive learning by Albert Bandura .The study adopted a descriptive correlational design. It also used simple regression to find out whether the school climate would predict test scores. The study was conducted in four public schools of Dadaab refugee camps in the North-Eastern part of Kenya. The target population consisted of students and teachers. The sampling technique was that of convenient, purposive and systematic sampling in that order, where thirty-five participants were selected from each school, to sum up to one hundred and thirty-eight form one students and a total of thirty-four teachers. Research instruments included questionnaires for teachers and students and the interview schedule for teachers. Piloting was done as well to ascertain the reliability of the instruments. The test- retest technique was used to estimate the degree to which the instrument would yield consistent results after repeated trials. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and examined before condensing and presenting information using frequency distribution tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The results revealed that there is a negative and insignificant relationship between school climate and academic performance of form ones.