Health And Nutrition On The Performance Of Pre Primary School Children In Rangwe Zone, Homa Bay District, Kenya

Abstract

It is a fact that all people need food and cannot live long without eating enough of it. It is

this fact that the researcher has decided to establish the Impact on Health and Nutrition

on the Performance of Pre-Primary School in Rangwe Zone, Homa Bay District; the

research is based on finding out the relationship that exist between feeding and the

academic performance of the ECE children.

The researcher basing his research in children in Rangwe Zone randomly selected schools

and one sub-district hospital; Rangwe Health Centre.

In the introduction of the study, the researcher dwelt much on the importance food as a

component of life. He compared the rich and the poor countries interms of food output.

In the statement of the problem, the researcher dwelt on the advantages and

disadvantages of good nutrition in the early ages, the researcher has also gone through

poverty in general as a factor contributing to drop-out rate from the ECE centres in

Rangwe Zone.

In literature review, the researcher’s viewed the extent to which health and nutrition

affects performance of the ECE children in the pre-primary education.

The researcher also reviewed the socio-economic status of the parents of the children in

the area of study and the way forward to overcome the socio-economic problems faced

by these parents.

Questionnaires to reach six schools out of the Zone’s 27 schools were used. The

researcher used random sampling whereby the population covered was about 30%.

The researcher found out that the ECE children have very little to feed on and foods eaten

are often unbalanced diet this gives rise to acute malnutrition. It is therefore felt that the

Government should avail feeding programmes as done in other districts. The parents

should also change their attitude and deviate from the main cash crop which is sugar cane

and plant food crops such as sorghum, groundnuts, cassava and other food crops which are rich in proteins and vitamins.