ABSTRACT
Education being the key to socio-economic development of any nation has prompted the
government of Kenya to subsidize secondary school education, as a way of ensuring
maximum students‟ participation. However, there is growing concern that this initiative
may not be yielding the expected outcome, as is evident from the current relatively low
transition and completion rates. Unexpectedly so, the country continues to record surging
numbers of school drop outs since the subsidization programme was first rolled out. The
study sought to establish the relationship between subsidized school funding and
students‟ participation in public secondary schools. Specifically, the study investigated
the trends in enrolment rates and subsidized school funding by school category, evaluated
the relationship between subsidized school funding and textbook to student ratio,
analyzed the association between subsidized school funding and transition rates from
public primary to secondary school and assessed the relationship between subsidized
school funding and completion rates in public secondary schools in Vihiga County. The
study was based on the Von Thunen‟s Production Function Theory, which postulates a
linear relationship between educational inputs and outputs. The study was implemented
using the descriptive survey research design and targeted the 5 Sub-County Directors of
Education, 5175 form three students, 115 principals and 1023 teachers, all drawn from
the 115 public secondary schools in the research area. A sample of 518 form three
students, 102 teachers, 12 principals and 5 Sub-County Directors of Education was
selected by saturated sampling for the directors, simple random sampling for the
Principals, then purposive sampling for the students and teachers. Data were collected
using questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis guides. Piloting was
conducted three weeks to the actual study in 5 secondary schools in the research area, to
assess the suitability of these instruments for collecting the required data. Validity of the
research instruments was assessed using data from the pilot study, via the Rasch model,
while their reliability was assessed at the same stage using the test-retest method. Both
measures were found to meet the minimum threshold as stipulated by various educational
research experts with respect to the research instruments that were developed by the
researcher. Data were analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics thus;
frequency counts, means and percentages. Pearson‟s Product Moment Correlation
Coefficient was used to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 alpha level of statistical
significance. Findings revealed that there was a steady rise in the average number of
students enrolled in form one in boarding schools as compared to those who enrolled in
day schools. Moreover, the study established that a significant positive relationship
exists between subsidized school funding and completion rates. However, a there was no
significant association between subsidized school funding and both student to text book
ratio and primary to school transition rates. It was concluded an increase in the funds
allocated towards subsidizing secondary school education would significantly improve
students‟ participation. It is therefore recommended that the government of Kenya should
allocate more funds towards subsidization of secondary education, so as to increase
students‟ participation in all Kenyan public secondary schools.