Relationship between cost - sharing and access and equity in education in public secondary schools in Nakuru District, Kenya

Abstract

Education is critical for the development of a country. Governments invest in it and prioritize it as a service to its citizens. However, due to the huge resources needed for provision of education, many governments, including the government of Kenya, have introduced the cost-sharing policy to reduce budgetary allocated to the education sector. The average government spending on education, excluding the share by households had risen between 5 and 7 percent of the GDP by 2005 (GOK, 2005) According to the policy, parents and the government share the cost-sharing. This has however, placed a heavy burden on parents as they are required to pay school fees and also finance development projects, boarding and personal requirements. This study sought to investigate the relationship between cost sharing and access and equity in public secondary schools in Nakuru district. The study adopted correlational research design. The targeted population was 43,843 students and 125 head teachers in public secondary schools, with an accessible population of 7814 Form four students of the 2004 cohort. The sample consisted of 393 students and 10 head teachers selected from 10 schools. Data were collected using student and head teacher structured questionnaires. The instrument for students had a reliability coefficient of 0.76. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics included frequencies and percentages, while inferential statistics entailed chi-square tested at the significance level of 0.05. Analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11.5 for Windows. The findings indicated that the cost-sharing had a significant relationship with the enrolment rates of public secondary school students according to school category. However, the schools had different enrolment rates regardless of their school type. Cost-sharing had a significant relationship with attendance rates of public secondary school students by school category and type. Flow rates depended on the availability of teaching and learning facilities regardless of cost sharing. There were inequities in access to education between female and male students due to the relatively high cost of education of girls compared to the boys. The study recommends that there is need for the government to produce adequate learning and teaching materials at regional levels. The cost -sharing policy should be reviewed to make it more responsive to the unique and diverse requirements of different categories of schools and the ability of the parents to meet the cost. Further research is recommended on the implementation of the free tuition policy in public secondary school education.