Impact On Lower Primary Education By The Challenges Of Distance To The Pre-School Centres In Mukogodo Division, Laikipia County, Kenya

The government of Kenya since independence  has had many commissions in place which have helped review Kenyan system of education so as to make sure it is in line with the national requirements of human capital and also national educational goals and objectives.  The legal provision and policy documents of Kenya  support the education or the minority and the marginalized children. It is within the country’s legal framework and policy to provide quality education to all irrespective of cultural, religion and economic disparities.  There should be enough schools and of good quality in the whole country. Currently with devolved government, the counties are supposed to look into the development of Early Childhood Development in their respective counties. It will not just be enough to construct ECD centers but there is need to check who these centers are serving and how far these children are coming from so as to cater for all children without discrimination, thus the study sought to investigate the impact on lower primary education by the challenges of distance to the pre-school centres in Mukogodo division, Laikipia county. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of long distance from home to pre- school on preschool and lower primary academic performance of the children of the pastoralist community in Mukogodo division Laikipia County Kenya. The research was to find out how long distance to pre-school centers affects pre-school attendance, pre-school entry age, enrolment and eventually academic performance at lower primary school level. The study was guided by justice and fairness theory which advocates for principles of justice to guide modern social order by John Rawl  (1971). The researcher used questionnaires as research instruments which were filled by pre-school teachers and class teachers of lower primary and also had an interview schedule for ECD sub county officer. The researcher employed the descriptive survey research design due its appropriateness for educational research. The records on academic performance of the pupils to establish their academic performance and also the pre-school attendance register were checked. The target population was pre-school teachers, pre-school children, lower primary school and preschool class teachers and ECD Sub-county officer. The schools were 17 in total. The study sampled 7 pre schools and 7 public primary schools.  The sample size was 47.05% of the total population. The results were coded and entered into the computer and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) where frequencies, percentages, and means were computed and presented using graphs and tables. The results were used to come up with recommendations that would help improve academic performance in this region. The study findings were; long distance form home to school affected enrolment of children to pre-schools.  It also affects the age entry of the pupils in pre-school.  Attendance of the children in school is poor due to long distance from home hence poor performance in school. The study concluded that long distances affects the performance of the pupils in early primary school, it affects the attendance and age entry of the pupils in pre-schools. The study recommends that all stakeholders should put in place to critically address challenges related to issues of access, equity, quality and relevance of ECDE programs and also mitigate against the challenges that affect the learning programs due to long distance.