Relationship between Resource Availability and Performance in French Subject in Public Secondary Schools in Vihiga County-Kenya
French subject was the first foreign language to be taught and examined in Kenya. This subject however, has continued to register low enrolment, as well as poor performance in the national examination. This study examined the role of resource availability on student’s performance in French language in secondary schools. The study adopted correlational designs. The target population included all the schools teaching French subject, in Vihiga County. Stratified random sampling technique was employed to select 10 schools out of 14. The schools were grouped into National, County and Sub-County schools. One-way ANOVA technique was used as the main analysis method. The findings from the study revealed that human resources, school physical resources and financial resources have the most significant relationship with the performance of students in French subject. However, the study also found that teachers were not exposed to teacher professional development activities and a handful had attended in-service (seminar) on French language pedagogy. The study concludes that most teachers had not attended any refresher courses as well as inexperienced, explained why the performance of French was dismal. More than two thirds of the schools did not have libraries, meaning that learners were denied the opportunity to interact meaningfully with books. Some teachers confessed that the funds allocated to their departments were inadequate. Therefore, the study recommends that efforts should be made by school authorities, the Ministry of Education, county authorities and other stakeholder to provide enough physical resources like teaching/learning resources, class rooms and libraries.
