Alternative Sources of Financing Secondary School Education in the Rural Counties of Kenya: A Case Study of Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

Provision of quality secondary education is important in generating the opportunities and benefits of social and economic development as envisaged in vision 2030. The educational needs for secondary education have increased due to the introduction of Free Primary Education in 2003 and the increased transition rate. Secondary enrolment has grown from 0.9 million in 2004 and is expected to reach 2.7 million by 2015. This will require that the government commits more resources towards secondary education sub-sector in recurrent and physical infrastructure expansion. Public financing is predominantly recurrent expenditure that goes to salaries while the proportion of secondary non-salary expenditure, including bursaries and development was estimated at 6.5 percent, implying high household financing mainly through user charges. One way of helping mitigate this will be through schools initiating alternative sources of income and try to make up for the gap in their budgetary deficit. This study was conducted to identify the alternative sources of financing secondary school education in Kisii County and their influence on management of those schools. It also sought to identify challenges facing schools in financing secondary education and the impact of alternative sources of income on the school budget. It employed a descriptive survey design. The study sample consisted of thirty school principals and their bursars; purposively selected from schools that were at least eight years old, five from each of the six districts in Kisii County, six DEO’s, six DQASOs and three District Schools’ Auditors. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the school principals, while interview schedules were used for bursars, DEO’s, school auditors and district quality assurance and standards officers. The research also sought to find out how the income generated was used by the institutions. This research was guided by the two theories; the systems resource model and the human capital theory. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected on alternative sources of income, effects of access, retention and management of secondary schools in Kisii County. Findings of the study revealed that the dominant sources of financing secondary education were; service based incomes (20%), commercial based (35%) and agricultural based (45%. Further findings revealed that earnings from this sources enhanced management in secondary schools through salary remuneration for BOG teachers, support staff and student motivation. Part of the revenue was used to purchase more teaching and learning materials and improvement of physical facilities. The Ministry of Education should therefore formulate policies on how schools can implement alternative sources of financing secondary education to reduce overdependence on government and donor funding.