| dc.description.abstract | The government of Kenya in attempting to bring development through education
initiated a policy on development fund that was aimed at increasing enrollment and
retention rate in education. It was evident that student enrollment in secondary
education had improved, on the other hand, retention rate had fluctuated over time,
despite the fact that there is Free Day Secondary School Education fund and the CDF
development fund to improve access to education. This study was to investigate the
influence of constituency development fund on secondary school learners retention
rate in Trans - Nzioa East Sub County. The objectives of the study were; to establish
the influence of construction of physical facilities by CDF has on Learner‘s retention
Rate, to determine the influence of procurement of teaching/ learning material on
learner‘s retention rate, to investigate the influence of funding methods on learner‘s
retention rate, to examine the influence of CDF community awareness on Learner‘s
retention rate. This study adopted a descriptive survey design. The study used simple
random where it considered 60 public schools with a target population of 15, 385
students from Trans- Nzoia East Sub County. Therefore, 52 head-teachers were
sampled. Purposive sampling was administered on the officials who comprised of the
5 CDF officials. The sample size was 57 of the population of the study. The data was
collected using questionnaires, and oral interviews to the officials mentioned. The
study adopted descriptive statistics in analyzing the data using SPSS and presented in
frequency tables, frequency and percentages. The research findings support the view
that CDF activities influences learner‘s retention rate. To succeed in their objective
CDF activities have benefited the learners since the study found out that CDF has
been providing physical facilities according to the need of the school but until this
time physical facilities provision are not enough and this has limited leaner retention
rate. Moreover, the study established that availability of CDF funds has led to reduced
cost of education. The CDF has provided the learners with funds some since form one
and this has increased the learners retention rate. Since many problems linked to
funding were established for instance, funds are not only given to poor students, they
are affected by political interference as well as nepotisms and corruption. On the
other hand, the study determined that most of the respondents were of the view that
CDF availability has led to increased procurement of learning materials to a minimal
extent since involve stages for the school to be able to procure learning material
provided by CDF. The stages discussed included Receipt method; Tendering, Lead
time, M&E process, Delivery method but most have been following the stages to the
later. The findings pointed out that this has increased learners retention rate. Finally,
the study found out that CDF availability has led to increased learners retention rate
through creation of awareness. The study acknowledges many ways the CDF official,
school administration uses as well as how the community is involved. The study
thought of awareness not existing without the knowledge of the respondents on the
strength, weakness and challenges of CDF. The findings of the study were to be
useful information that could be used to review policy, improve decision making in
matters related to management of development funds. Some of the recommendations
were that provision of funds should be managed by professionals not politicians,
allocation and disbursement should be timely, training school managers on proper
management of CDF Funds, CDF should send funds direct to schools. | en_US |
