PHD-Department of Educational Foundations

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Browsing PHD-Department of Educational Foundations by Subject "Cost of Schooling"

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    Cost of Schooling and Completion of Secondary Education in Public Day Schools in Kakamega County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2021) Amwayi, Bernard L.; Sifuna Daniel; Gathara Peter
    Despite various government interventions aimed at increasing completion of secondary education, the ideal situation is yet to be realized. Completion rate in Kakamega County is lower than the national enrolment rates and missed the 2014 EFA target. With a dropout rate of 25%, the County lags far behind the UNESCO projected dropout out rate of just 5%. Consequently, Kakamega East Sub-County has a substantial share of non-completion despite having the largest number of relatively low cost public day secondary schools. The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between school costs and completion of secondary school education in public day schools within Kakamega East Sub-County. Specific objectives were: to explore the relationship between school levies and completion; to establish the influence of user items on completion; to establish the influence of household income on completion and to assess interventions towards enhancing completion. Two distinct theories guided the study: Rovai’s Persistence Theory and the Validation Theory. The study utilized a descriptive survey research design. The target population consisted of 35 school Principals (35 day schools), 144 parents’ representatives, 70 form 4 class teachers and 1787 Form Four students. Two sampling techniques were used: systematic random sampling and purposive sampling. The study utilized a sample of 17 school Principals, 34 Form Four class teachers, 70 form 4 parents’ representatives, 538 Form Four students and one SCDE. Questionnaires, interview schedules, Focus Group Discussions and documentary analysis were used to collect data. The validity of data was ascertained through triangulation strategies and a pilot study. The reliability of the data collection tools was established through the test-retest method, a reliability coefficient of at least 0.7 was deemed appropriate for the interview guide, focus group discussion guide and questionnaires. The study established that, despite several interventions by public and private benefactors, high non-completion still persists in public day schools in Kakamega East Sub-County. This rate was caused by a combination of school levies, the cost of user items and low levels of household income. Comparatively, the lunch and infrastructure development levies contributed a substantial 79.4% of the total cost of school levies while over 60% of the cost of user items was contributed by set books, stationery and uniforms. As a result, the non-completion rate in Kakamega East was more than twenty two percentage points behind the EFA target of 5%. School levies mainly caused non-completion while cost of user items aggravated the problem of non-completion of secondary education especially in the subsequent classes of Forms 3 and 4. However, the effect of user items was comparatively lower than the effect of school levies. Also, majority of the households had low and unreliable income. The existing interventions failed to realize the EFA target of 95% in public day schools while some did not benefit day scholars. There was need to expand support from PSSB, Co-operative Bank and Equity Bank to day scholars in order to benefit more students at lower cost. The cost of schooling could be reduced further by lowering the cost of lunch and uniforms. For instance, downsizing the curriculum and promoting public-private partnerships to produce low cost school uniforms through low taxes for designated factories. In addition, the RMI vote head should be adjusted to fund construction of physical facilities in schools according to the needs instead of basing it on student enrolment. Suggested school based interventions include increased sensitization, use of alumni and payment of levies in kind.