Impact of student expenditure differentials on academic achievement at secondary school level in Kikuyu district-Kenya
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Date
2014-08-08
Authors
Macharia, Nancy Wangui
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Abstract
The study highlighted the relationship between public secondary school inputs in terms of
student expenditure and how that impact on academic achievement. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the impact of secondary school student expenditure differentials
on academic achievements in Kikuyu district, Kenya. The specific objectives of this
study were to: establish the academic achievement, establish the student expenditure,
determine the relationship between student expenditure and academic achievement and
lastly to assess the impact of other determinants of students' academic achievement in
national, county and district schools in Kikuyu district. The findings may help the policy
makers in statistically confirming whether or not the amount of money spent per student
would make a statistically significant difference in academic performance. The study was
based on production function model which is used to represent the relationship of outputs
and inputs. A descriptive survey research design in quantitative approach was used in this
study. The target population was all the 25 public secondary schools in Kikuyu district.
The sample for the study was 22 principals since three schools were used for piloting. A
questionnaire for principals and document analysis guide was used to collect data. The
instruments were presented to two experts in Economics of Education from the
department of Educational Management Policy and Curriculum Studies of Kenyatta
University for face and content validation. Test-retest method was used for testing the
reliability of the instruments. The questionnaires were delivered to schools and collected
after one day. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as t-test were utilized to
determine the relationship between student expenditure and academic achievement by
school category. Findings revealed that: national schools had the highest mean scores
followed by county schools and lastly the district schools performed dismally, there are
great discrepancies in the student expenditure in the three categories of schools, there was
a relationship between the student expenditure and academic achievement in the national
schools, county and district schools. Based on the findings, the following conclusions
were made from the study: national schools had the highest mean scores followed by
county schools and lastly the district schools performed dismally, there was a relationship
between the student expenditure and academic achievement in the national schools,
school expenditure had an effect in students' achievement in district schools and that
there were other factors that impacted on students' academic achievement apart from the
student expenditure. The study recommended that the government should monitor how
school funds are allocated and how they are used in the school for improvement of
students' performance. That it may be the misallocation, which leads to wastage of funds,
and the worst use or the exploitation of funds and resource inputs that is responsible for
the lower academic achievement in the schools. There is need to review the amount of
money that students pay in school and how much of the money benefit students directly.
The study suggested that there is a need to carry out a study on the influence of
government cost sharing policy on students' academic achievement in secondary schools
and another study on the influence of student expenditures on academic achievement in
rural and urban schools.
Description
Department of Educational Management Policy & Curriculum Studies, 72p.2013