Abstract:
The World Bank structural adjustment programs in Kenya that demanded cost-sharing in public
primary schools led many poor families withdraw children from school such that when the government
introduced free learning in 2003 the pupil-teacher ratio increased from 40:1 to 70:1. This paper is a summary
of a study that sought to determine the impact of free primary education on teacher effectiveness in Kuria East
Constituency for the period 1999-2008. It employed the Capital Theory of School Effectiveness and
Improvement which discounts the conventional model of measuring school effectiveness and improvement as an
inadequate tool for measuring school success, but advocates that schools should leverage on effective strategies
that allow for large impact from relatively low effort instead of employing too much effort and yielding too little.
Simple random sampling technique was used to identify 100 teacher respondents and 25 head teachers from 25
schools that were identified through stratified sampling of a total 68 schools in the area. Results show that
increase in class sizes made teachers adopt lecture methods, not issue adequate assignments, avoid marking
assignments, and reduce their morale, a combination that was reflected in examination results. The research
recommended that the government adopt performance contracts for teachers so that they are paid according to
the workload arising from extra-large classes that have come with free learning
