School social capital, school climate and pupils’ learning readiness in Government-Aided primary schools in Ngora District

Abstract

The study investigated relationships between school social capital, school climate and pupil’s learning readiness in government-aided primary schools in Ngora District. The three objectives were to examine the relationships between: school social capital and school climate; school climate and pupil’s learning readiness and; school social capital and pupil’s learning readiness. It used a survey design targeting a population of 150 respondents; 66 SMC members, 6 head teachers and 78 teachers from six government aided primary schools which were; Kapir P/S,Atapar P/S, Akisim P/S , Kapel P/S, Akeit P/S and Mukura P/S. The sample taken was128 of which 109 of the Self Administered Questionnaire’s (SAQ’s) distributed were returned for analysis. The data on demographic variables was analyzed using relative frequencies and descriptive statistics. Then Pearson’s Product moment correlation coefficient was used to establish the relationships between the study variables. The findings revealed that School social capital was significant in creating a good school climate drawn from the results which revealed that most sub components of school social capital and those for school climate had significant and positive relationships. This study also concluded that school climate was not a predictor of learning readiness since their sub components had insignificant relationships. This study concluded that school social capital had a significant positive correlation to children’s readiness in Ngora District. This was drawn from the results which showed that most sub-components of school social capital had significant and positive relationships with school readiness. The study recommends that: The schools in Ngora District and other stakeholders should attach much emphasis on social capital as one of the major factors to create good school climates; and as strategy to boost pupils’ learning readiness. The stakeholders in Ngora District should not put emphasis on school climates as a determinant of school readiness.