The effect of donor funding on the achievement of free primary education in Nairobi county: A case study of Kasarani district (2006-2010)

Abstract

This study sought to establish the effect of donor funding towards the achievement of free primary education in Nairobi County: a case study of Kasarani District. Accordingly, the objectives of the study was to determine whether the number of girls enrolled in public primary schools within Kasarani District was related to donor funding and to establish whether the performance of pupils in the KCPE within Kasarani District was related to donor funding. The survey research design was used for the study. The sample size consisted of 17 schools in Kasarani District selected by way of random sampling and data was collected using structured questionnaire over five year period to 2010. The analysis of data collected was done by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings of this study revealed that there is a relationship between girls’ enrolment as a percentage of total enrolment and academic performance. However, this relationship is only explained by 22.6% variation in donor funding as a percentage of total funding. The study further established that donor funding of -0.883 had no effect on girls’ enrolment and academic performance. This shows that lack of donor funding neglects primary school performance. Thereafter, one unit change in the number of girls enrolled resulted to an increase of 1.776 in donor funding whereas the change in academic performance by a unit mean score resulted into 0.003 increase in donor funding. In view of the above findings, the study recommends that the government should work closely with the donors in order to increase the enrolment of girls in public primary schools. The government should also identify other factors that influence girls' enrolment and academic performance apart from the donor funding, effort should then be put to promote those factors.