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Influence of school agricultural farms on academic performance in agriculture in secondary schools
Abstract
Performance in agriculture in secondary schools countrywide has remained dismal since the year 2016 and it is mainly attributed to poor pedagogical skills and a lack of proper teaching materials and infrastructure. This study, therefore, sought to assess the influence of school agricultural farms on academic performance in agriculture in secondary schools in Hamisi Sub-County, Kenya. The study employed a descriptive survey research design involving census sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 25.0, with Spearman’s rank-order correlation being employed to check for multicollinearity among study variables. The study established that, to a large extent, school agricultural farms influence academic performance in agriculture. The study recommends that efforts be made by all relevant players to ensure that secondary schools offering agriculture have access to functional farms for effective instruction. For their part, teacher training institutions should improve their ability to provide teachers with relevant knowledge, skills, and strategies for teaching agriculture, and the Ministry of Education should ensure that schools offering the subject have adequate resources for running their demonstration farms.