| dc.description.abstract | Understanding that introduction of the tuition waiver program in public secondary school
in 2008 opened gates for many students to enroll in secondary schools, there still exists
several factors that constrain accessibility to secondary school education in Kenya. Such
factors like school infrastructure, teacher student ratio and other costs relating to
secondary education and their effect on accessibility is a major concern. This research
report presents an assessment of factors affecting accessibility to public secondary
schools in Kenya. To answer this question, the study collected data from sixteen public
secondary schools in Nairobi County and carried out a casual comparison of data
between two years before and after introduction of the tuition waiver program. The
sixteen schools were sampled from eight Nairobi county divisions namely Central,
Dagoretti, Embakasi, Kibera, Kasarani, Makandara, Westlands and Pumwani. Head
teachers from the selected schools were the key informants in the study while teachers
from the schools constituted focus group discussions. Chapter one presents the
background to the study highlighting key aspects that underpin free secondary education
in different countries in the world, Kenya included. In addition, the chapter presents the
statement of the problem, its justification as well as the objectives of the study. Chapter
two delves into literature review, looking at several studies that have been done in the
past as far as the free schooling program is concerned with specific focus on access while
Chapter three outlines the research methodology that was applied in the study. Chapter
four deals with data organization,analysis, presentation and discusses the findings and in
the end, Chapter five presents a summary of findings, conclusions, recommendations and
implications for further studies. The study reveals that tuition waiver program had both
positive and negative effect on access to public secondary school education. The positive
effect is evidenced in the fact that the p,rogram managed to increase access to schooling
for children from poor families reporting an average increase of 12.3% between 2006 and
2009. Elimination of tuition fees through government subsidized the cost burden of
education of poor families thus many such families were able to send their children to
school. On the other hand, it is noted that there were negative effects on accessibility
emanating from the tuition waiver program. There was increased number of students who
enrolled in school without proportionate investment in physical infrastructure and teacher
employment. 18.75% of respondents sampled indicated that tuition waiver had caused
some parents to withdraw their children from public schools due to congestion, increased
teacher student ratio and declining quality. The study recommends that government
should increase funding to free learning program, specifically to physical infrastructure,
partner with private schools to increase access and quality and publish a gazette notice
detailing the standard schools fees in public schools. The fees guideline by the ministry
of education has left loopholes for school administrations to increase school fees. | en |
