Level of Government Funding and Their Distribution across Gender and the Beneficiaries of Public Funding of Education in Seme Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya government has initiated a number of education investment fundings such as Free Tuition Secondary Education, Constituency Development Fund and District Education Board Bursary in secondary schools in an attempt to promote retention and reduce dropout rate among the students in public secondary schools. In Seme Sub-County, the proportion of 16 and 17 year old without access to education was 2,257 (9.1 percent) of the total number of secondary school going age which was 24,799 and of those who attended secondary schools which was 22, 542, of which 5,883 (26.1 percent) dropped out without completing secondary school in the sub-county. The objectives of the study were to; examine levels of education fundings schools. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. All the thirty (30) public secondary schools in the Seme Sub-County were included in the study through saturation sampling technique. A pilot study was conducted in two schools to establish both reliability and validity of the instruments. The study found that that the majority of the schools in Seme Sub County, had more than 500 students. The study also found that all the public secondary schools received the education funding which could be in form of CDF bursaries, DEBB or FTSE. Further, it was found that all the schools (100%) received FTSE funds. The number of the CDF applicants since 2009 have been on the upward trend and based on distribution by gender, more male students have be applying for the CDF than their female counterparts, save for the year 2011 when more than half of the applicants were females. The study recommends that the public should be adequately sensitized on the existence of various government education educational fundings including DEBB funds and when they are released to ensure that more students are able to apply for it. The amount allocated for the various government education funds should be increased so that more students can benefit as well as enough money to be given to deserving students to enable them clear their fees.