Influence of school based factors on provision of free primary education in Dagoretti sub-county, Nairobi city county, Kenya.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of school- based factors on provision of Free Primary Education (FPE) in Dagoretti Sub-County, Nairobi. The study was to address the following objectives: to determine the influence of pupil-teacher ratio, physical facilities, adequacy of teaching and learning materials and to assess the extent to which students‟ grade promotion policy influence the provision of FPE in Dagoretti Sub-County. The study was guided by the Education Production Function theory. The theory refers to all combinations of the inputs that produce any given set of outputs. It can also be explained as the relationship between school and pupil inputs and a measure of school output. The Education Production Theory was initially developed by Coleman et al., (1966) report. The study used cross-sectional survey. The target population in this study was 16 public regular primary school head teachers, 338 teachers TSC Office Dagoretti Sub-County and 3193 class 8 pupils in Dagoretti Sub-County. The study purposely sampled 16 head teachers by census. Thus the study took 20 percent of all the teachers and 13 percent of all the class 8 pupils. Stratified random sampling was employed in the study. The study used questionnaires which were administered to head teachers, teachers and pupils to obtain the data of the study. The observation checklists were used to collect information on the physical facilities in the schools. The study also used document analysis to obtain the information for the study. The quantitative data collected from the questionnaires were edited, coded and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21 to inform on descriptive statistics. The collected data was presented using tables and figures. The study used cross-tabulation and a Pearson Chi-Square Test which established that there exists no statistically significant relationship between pupil-teacher ratio, physical facilities, teaching learning materials and automatic grade promotion policy on provision of Free Primary Education as illustrated by P-Value > 0.05.This implies that pupil-teacher ratio across the classes from class 1-8 exceeds 1:40 as recommended ratio by UNESCO (2006) and TSC (2006). The high pupil-teacher ratio was attributed to low academic achievements in KCPE performance in Dagorreti Sub County. Further, the findings shows that inadequacy of physical facilities and teaching and learning materials negatively influence the provision of FPE in Dagoretti Sub-county. Finally, the study established that students‟ grade promotion policy negatively influences the provision of FPE in Dagoretti Sub-County. Based on the findings the study recommends that there is need for the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to employ more teachers in the Sub-County. The physical facilities in schools ought to be adequate for effective learning. The government should increase capitation in public primary schools in order for schools to buy adequate teaching and learning materials. The policy on students‟ automatic grade promotion by the ministry of education is not fully implemented in many schools. Repetition of some low achievers in classes makes other pupils to drop out of schools. All pupils in schools should be promoted from one grade to the other regardless of their performance in examinations. Based on the findings, the study suggests; a similar study could be replicated to private primary schools in Dagoretti Sub County. The study suggests that a study could be carried out on influence of school-based factors on provision of FPE in other counties. Finally, a study could be done on the influence of socio-economic factors on provision of FPE in Dagoretti Sub County.