Abstract:
Abstract: Globally, all girls just like boys have a right to be educated so as to
maximize their personal development and their contribution to their community and
society. The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of early marriages on
girls’ retention in public secondary schools, The study was guided by social learning
theory by Albert Bandura. Social learning theory states that learning occurs within a
social context. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. In other words, the
study applied both quantitative and qualitative methods and adopted the concurrent
triangulation design. The study was conducted in 20 secondary schools in Isiolo
County and the target population of the study comprised of 5701 respondents. The
study used simple random sampling. The study sample consisted of 301 respondents.
The researcher used questionnaires and interview schedules in this data collection
process. Piloting of the was done in 4 schools in Neighboring Meru County where the
validity of the instruments was done through the expert judgement of the supervisors
while the reliability of the instruments was ascertained using test-retest method and
internal consistency of the instruments will be calculated using Cronbachs Alpha
where a reliability coefficient of 0.72 was established. Qualitative data was analyzed
descriptively and arranged according to the themes while quantitative data was
analyzed using SPSS version 23 and tables presented in form of percentages, mean
and standard deviation. The study established that early marriages influence girl’s
retention the study concludes that indeed it has an impact girl’s education to a greater
extent and the community around still prefers early marriages of school going girls
which has been hindrance to girls completing their education successfully.
