INFLUENCE OF FEES SUBSIDY AND SUPPLEMENTARY SERVICES ON ACCESS, RETENTION AND COMPLETION RATES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AMONG STUDENTS IN MARIGAT SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

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.