Educational subsidies and students’ participation rates in education in public secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

Governments around the world agree that, the ability to provide quality education for all and to respond to new priorities depends on the availability of adequate funding in education. Financing of education is the greatest enabler of learners to participate in education and flow through education system from entry to exit. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of educational subsidies on participation rates in public secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to establish the influence of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) capitation grants, government bursary funds, financing by non-state agencies and provision of teaching and learning materials by the government on participation rates in public secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. The researcher formulated four null hypotheses stating: There is no statistically significant relationship between FDSE capitation grants, government bursary funds, education financing by non-state agencies and provision of teaching and learning materials by the government and participation rates in public secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. The study was anchored on the Classical Liberal Theory by Rousseau. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The study targeted all 384 schools, all 384 Principals, 384 Deputy Principals and 9 Sub County Directors of Education in Makueni County. Out of the 384 schools, the study sampled 196 schools’ principals and deputy principals through stratified, simple random sampling. Data collection instruments included questionnaires for Principals, Deputies and interview schedule for Sub-county Directors of Education. The instruments were ascertained through piloting and by research experts to ensure content validity while reliability was achieved through piloting and testing reliability. Data was analyzed by use of SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations and inferential statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data. Qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis and the responses presented in narratives, tables and figures. The results revealed that there was statistically significant relationship between FDSE capitation grants, government bursary funds, education financing by non-state agencies and provision of teaching and learning materials by the government on participation rates in public secondary schools in Makueni County. This was at r values of 0.67,0.68, 0.63, and 0.59 respectively which were all positive and significant with values of 0.014, 0.015, 0.019, and 0.022 respectively. The study concluded that FDSE capitation grants, government bursary funds, financing by non-state agencies and provision of teaching and learning materials by the government all influence students’ participation rates in public secondary schools in Makueni county, Kenya. And that, education subsidies influence students’ participation rates in the study locale. The results indicated that 64% of the variation in the participation of students in schooling in public secondary schools in Makueni County could be explained by provision of education subsidies in financing education. The study recommends that, the government should continue providing and diversifying educational subsidies, schools should come up with income generating activities whose profits can be used to give bursaries to deserving students. Further, schools should utilize the available resources cost-effectively.