School Social Capital and Pupils’ Preparedness for Upper Primary in Nakuru County, Kenya

Primary education in Kenya is divided into two levels: lower and upper primary. Successful transition of pupils to upper primary in an education system is dependent on pupils' masterly of lower primary curriculum. Lower primary curriculum masterly gaps, therefore implies that pupils may encounter challenges in upper primary which may translate to low quality achievement of pupils in upper primary. This appears to be the case in Kenya in general and Nakuru County in particular if pupils' performance in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exit examination is anything to go by. Although level of pupils' preparedness is dependent on many factors, the study zeroed in on school social capital for it was construed as a critical correlate for quality learning in lower primary. Using an ex-post facto research design, data were collected from 254 class three teachers in Nakuru County through a personally delivered questionnaire and subsequently analysed using simple regression statistic at 0.05 alpha level. The analysis revealed a linear but insignificant relationship (F= 3.491; df= 253; P>.05) between school social capital and level of pupils' preparedness for upper primary in the study locale. The study further showed that the beta value (β= -0.019) was negative and statistically insignificant (t= -0.310; P> 0.05). This finding implied that the selected aspects of social capital had a negative effect on pupils' preparedness for upper primary although the impact was not statistically significant. The adjusted R2 value (R2= 0.0031) further indicated that the focused facets of school social capital only accounted for 0.31% of variation in pupils' preparedness for upper primary. The study offers useful insights on how schools can build social capital with a view to enhancing their capacity to effectively prepare pupils' for upper primary and thereby raise their chances of excelling in the KCPE examination.