Assessment of Access of Reading Resources in Bolstering Extensive Reading Habits and Composition Writing Skills in Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

Reading resources in schools can help in inculcating the reading culture and reading proficiency amongst students. This may help learners develop rational skills that are crucial in dealing with the current unpredictable and dynamic world. There has been a concern from educationist and researchers about the declining reading interest among secondary school learners in Kenya and one of the causes could be unavailability of reading resources amongst other determiners. This study was prompted by the lack of adequate reading resources that can bolster and sustain reading interest among secondary schools learners in Laikipia County in Kenya. The study therefore sought to establish whether there existed any relationship between availability and access of extensive reading resources and development of extensive reading habits evidenced in composition writing amongst learners. The study was guided by Piaget's (1952)) Schema Theory. The study used descriptive survey research design. Fifteen secondary schools in Laikipia County were sampled using proportional stratified sampling technique in five sub-counties across the county. Purposive sampling was used to sample 30 out of 80 (37.5%) teachers of English language. A Simple random sampling technique was used to sample 327 students out of appproximately 2670 students (12.24%) in form 2 and 3 in the County. The research instruments used for data collection included: questionnaire for students, interview guides for teachers and composition writing test. A pilot study of the instruments was done to ensure their validity and reliability in a co-educational secondary school in the neighbouring county that was not involved in the study. The reliability of the questionnaire and interview guide was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient as 0.871 which met the recommended threshold of 0.7 and above. Analysis of data was done using descriptive statistics such as frequency, tables and percentages. T-test was done at 95% confidence level (F(2) = 80.933, P = .001) to establish whether there was statistically significance difference between availability of reading resources and development of extensive reading habits captured in composition writing mean scores of different categories of school using (SPSS) version 17. Qualitative data were organized according to the study themes and presented descriptively on the basis of the study objective. It was established that learners in secondary schools with adequate extensive reading resources performed better in composition writing than those who did not. Therefore, it was established that inadequate supply of reading resources in schools had a negative impact on development of reading interest amongst learners. The study recommended that schools should collaborate with various stakeholders to solicit reading resources so as to promote access of reading materials and reading culture in schools and consequently improve learners’ composition writing skills.