Factors influencing effective implementation of free day secondary education in Maara district, Tharaka Nithi county, Kenya.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The importance of secondary education globally has grown considerably especially in developing countries with the success of Universal Primary Education (UPE). Kenya being among the developing countries has since independence attempted to provide basic education to all in an attempt to solve problems of illiteracy and ignorance with degree of success. This led to the launch of Free Primary Education (FPE) in 2003 which resulted to drastic enrolment of pupils in primary schools. However, these resulted to wastage rate among standard eight pupils since only a small proportion was able to access• and complete their secondary education. This was due to the cost implications of high school fees which was an affliction to many parents. The government of Kenya therefore launched the Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) •initiative in 2008 as a strategy to address the challenges brought about by the introduction of FPE. However, concerns have been raised over the effectiveness of this programme, though these concerns are neither founded on any systematic studies _ ported by any empirical data. The researcher therefore sought to establish the l based factors, teacher based factors, and community based factors that influence effective implementation of Free Day Secondary School Education in Maara District. A descriptive survey research design was used, in which public day secondary schools in Maara District were targeted. The target population was 447 and sample size of 107 respondents was randomly and purposively selected to participate in the study. A total of 107 participants were selected which formed 23.9% the total population. Data was gathered through interview schedule and questionnaire whose validity and reliability had been established by subjecting the instrument to a pilot study which was carried out on LO respondents outside the sample of the study. The 10 respondents were randomly selected and a test-retest technique of measuring reliability of the instrument was used which is concerned with • mal consistency of the instrument. Correlation coefficient (r) for the two tests calculated using Karl\ Pearson's moment coefficient correlation (r) which requires a (r) of 0.7 for the two halves. Data was analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) and output presented in frequency tables and bar graphs. The study established the following as factors influencing effective implementation of FDSE: inadequate physical facilities, inadequate teaching and learning resources, shortage of teachers lack of. motivation of teachers, large workload of teachers, lack of management training of school heads, and lack of support from the parents. The study further established that the funds allocated to schools were inadequate, hence did not meet the needs of the school as required. The recommendations made by this study were that the government should ensure that schools have all the physical facilities and other school resources necessary for the teaching and learning process. Emphasis should be put on disbursing the FDSE funds on time especially at the beginning of the year when schools require these funds to plan for the yearly activities.