Abstract:
The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between subsidized school funding and completion rates in public secondary schools in Vihiga County, Kenya. The study was founded on the Production Function Theory, which posits that an association exists between educational inputs and outputs. The study adopted a mixed methods approach, whereby the descriptive survey research design was used to execute the quantitative phase, while the oral interviews constituted the qualitative phase. The study was carried out in Vihiga county, Kenya and targeted; all the 5 Sub County Directors of Education, all the, 5175 form three students in public secondary schools, all the 115 principals and all their 1023 teachers. A sample of 518 students, 102 teachers, 12 principals and 5 Sub-County Directors of Education was selected using saturated sampling technique for the sub county directors of education and simple random sampling for the students, teachers and principals. Raw data were collected by use of questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis guides. A pilot study was performed three weeks prior to the actual study to assess the validity and reliability of the three instruments, which was done using the Rasch model and test-retest method respectively. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the collected data. These included frequencies, percentages, standard linear regression analysis. Findings indicated that a significant positive linear association exists between subsidized school funding and secondary school completion rates. On the basis of this revelation, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education should increase the funds it allocates annually per child towards subsidized secondary education, as the current Ksh. 10265 is insufficient, hence the low completion rates like this study witnessed in Vihiga County. |
