Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Since the setting of Education for All (EFA) targets in the year 1990, global nations ushered in
new commitments to expand access to education. Several countries established free basic
education programmes, in an effort to retain students in school. After introduction of free
primary education in Kenya, the number of students who transit from Primary to secondary
school has increased to over 70%. This was expected to further increase due to introduction of
subsidized secondary school fees and assistance in other supplementary services like school
Feeding programme, and supply of water by government of Kenya. This commitment by the
government was to boost secondary school access, retention and completion. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the influence of fees subsidy and supplementary services on access,
retention and completion of secondary education among students in Marigat sub-county, Kenya.
This study was guided by four objectives, the main objective being to determine the relationship
between fees subsidy and access to secondary education among students in Marigat Sub-county,
Kenya. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design. The target population was all
principals of secondary schools in Marigat sub-county. Since there were only 30 secondary
schools in Marigat sub-county all principals were included in the study. The questionnaires were
constructed as per the objectives. Out of the 30 issued questionnaires only 24 were returned
which were used in the study. The reliability was determined by piloting in the neighbouring
sub-county of Laikipia west. A reliability coefficient of 0.7 and above was considered
acceptable. Validity was established by experts from the department of Curriculum and
Educational Management of Laikipia University. Data was analyzed with use of Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. The hypotheses was tested at α=.05 level of
significance using Pearson’s correlation (r). The major findings were as follows: That there was
a statistically significant relationship between fees subsidy and access to secondary education
among students in Marigat Sub-county; that there is a statistically significant relationship
between supplementary services and retention rates; that there is no statistically significant
relationship between fees subsidy and completion rates of students; that there is a significant
gender difference on perception of the level of access to education and similarly there is also
gender difference on perception of retention and completion rate. The findings are intended to
benefit education managers, planners and policy makers in their effort to realizing the goal of
subsidized fees secondary education and use of supplementary services.
