Effects of Fees Guidelines on the Management of Public Secondary Schools in Nairobi Province, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of Government fees guidelines on the management of schools in Nairobi Province, Kenya. There has been a major concern amongst stakeholders about the amount of fees charged in secondary schools. The fees is perceived to be beyond the reach of many households and is thought to be a major contributory factor to school dropout rate. The policy of cost-sharing in education adopted in Kenya in 1988 shifted a major burden of financing education to households leaving the government with the supply of teachers. Different schools developed budgetary plans peculiar to their needs resulting in varying fees structures. There was need to streamline fees charged in schools. . The government therefore, came up with fees guidelines for different categories of schools; the guidelines were meant.to restrain situations of exorbitant fees in schools and bring about uniformity. The government insisted that schools had to levy uniform fees irrespective of their peculiarities. There was little success in restricting school budgets to government fees guidelines with school managements maintaining that schools could only attain observed levels of performance by levying fees higher than the guidelines. The researcher therefore investigated the relationship between fees and known factors of Quality School Management. A Questionnaire was developed by the researcher and circulated to 47 principals of public secondary schools in Nairobi Province achieving a return rate of 89.4 %. Data collected from the Questionnaire was computer analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Pearson's Chi-Square Tests were done on the data after Crosstabulating of fees levied against: ~ Performance at KCSE. ~ Schools levels of participation in co-curricular activities. ~ Schools level of provision of physical facilities. ~ Student-textbook ratios. ~ Student enrolment in schools. ~ Breadth of curriculum offered in schools. Some of the null hypotheses were rejected and others were not with varying degrees of correlation between fees and the listed variables. The findings were that there is a positive correlation between: fees charged and performance at KCSE; fees and level of school participation in co-curricular activities and finally between fees and breadth of curriculum offered in schools. Secondly, the other findings were that there was no significant correlation between fees charged and student enrolment, fees and level of provision of physical facilities and between fees and student-textbook ratio. Thirdly, a majority of the respondents were of the view that fees levied should be determined at school level with the involvement of Boards of Governors, Parents Teachers Associations and the Ministry of Education. From the study it is therefore recommended that individual schools be allowed to develop their own fees structure. This will address the needs of each school while at the same time holding school managements accountable for the performance of their schools. Secondly, decisions on the amount of fees levied be determined at school level with the Ministry of Education's involvement for guided decision making.