The Impact Of Public Procurement Policy On Teaching And Learning In Selected Public Secondary Schools In Kahuro District, Murang’a County, Kenya

The study sought to find out the impact of public procurement policy on teaching and learning in selected public secondary schools in Kahuro District, Murang’a County. The objectives that guided the study were:- to establish the impact of costs of goods and services, transparency in the procurement process, stock levels and the quality of goods procured affects teaching and learning. The descriptive survey research design was employed to undertake the study.  Secondary school principals, finance officers, teachers and students served as the target population. Stratified random sampling method was used to define the sample size. Data was collected by use of questionnaires which were administered to principals, finance officers and teachers. Focus group discussions were used to generate responses from the students and an interview schedule was administered to the District Education Officer. Data was analyzed by use of inferential and descriptive statistics and presented in frequency tables and percentages. Interrogation of secondary records was done to complement primary data. The study found out that principals considered schools to be getting adequate value from the cost of goods purchased. The inclusivity of the procurement committee was deemed as high by most of the principals, teachers and finance officers thus transparency in the procurement process. Most principals considered their schools to have employed mechanisms to evaluate the supplier’s financial positions to ensure adequate stock levels in the procurement of goods and services. Most principals confirmed that they had put in place modalities to ensure that the schools had access to quality goods and services while some were of a contrary opinion. The study made the following recommendations: Public secondary schools should put in place provisions which assure them of capacity to contain the cost of goods and services procured. The ministry of education should put in place mechanisms to enforce public secondary schools to raise transparency standards in all procurement procedures. The Ministry of Education should enforce provision for stock levels management in all public secondary schools. Public secondary schools should employ effective measures for quality assurance of goods and services procured.