Community financing of public secondary schools and its effect on academic achievement in Kisumu County, Kenya

Abstract

The constitution of Kenya 2010 provided for free and compulsory basic education as a human right to every Kenyan Child. Studies have shown evidence that increasing the provision of institutional materials is the most cost effective way of raising the quality of education. Free Secondary Education (FSE) policy was introduced in Kenya in 2008 with an aim of making secondary education affordable. The constraints on national budget; many governments have turned to parents, private sector, communities and well-wishers for new revenue sources. The purpose of this study was to analyze community financing of public secondary schools and its effects on academic achievement in Kisumu County, Kenya. The study was based in Kenya however Kisumu county was chosen for its below average KCSE mean score 4.08 low student: teacher ratio of 1:59, low poverty index 34% and 60% of its population live in impoverished communities in 2015. The study had five objectives. namely: to: examine: community financing of public secondary schools infrastructure and its effect on academic achievement ,to determine community financing of teaching and learning resources of public secondary schools and its effect on academic achievement., to determine community financing of public secondary schools transport and travel and its effect on academic achievement.to examine Community financing of human resources of public secondary schools and its effect on academic achievement and finally to determine community financing of public secondary schools lunch program and its effect on academic achievement in Kisumu County, Kenya. The study was done on the assumption that all public secondary schools in Kisumu county administer similar curriculum and funding controlled by the government. The conceptual framework shows the interrelationship between dependable variable and the independent variable’s. It was guided by production function theory adopted from Psacharopolos (1981). A descriptive survey and co-relation research design were used in the study. The study population comprised of all the 214 public secondary schools in Kisumu County, 214 principals, 214 BOM chairpersons, 48 CBO chairpersons and the CDE. Stratified random sampling procedure was used to sample 64 schools from which 64 principals and 64 BOM chairpersons were selected. Simple random sampling was used to sample 16 CBO chairpersons. Data was collected through questionnaires for principals BOM chairperson, CBO chairperson, CDE and interview schedule for CDE. The data from questionnaires were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer programme, for descriptive survey and inferential statistics. The level of testing hypothesis was set at 0.05 level of statistical significance confidence. The major findings of the study indicated that funding in public secondary schools were inadequate. The communities; alumni, parents, CBOs and well-wishers do fund the schools. Pearson correlation (r) coefficient of community financing on academic achievement were; infrastructure .901, teaching and learning resources .792, transport and travel resources .878, human resources .879 and lunch program .907. The regression statistical model determined coefficients a on effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. The overall conclusion emanating from the findings in the null hypothesis is that: there is a relationship between community financing and academic achievement in public secondary schools in Kisumu County. The study recommends a well-coordinated programme to mobilize resources from the communities, such as transport and travel as provided by the communities to be enhanced, sensitization on the benefits of community financing for academic achievement and study findings be used for practice and policy formulation. Finally, further research studies to be carried out in more counties with varying socio-economic status to determine the strategy of community financing in order to enhance academic achievement.