Free Secondary Education policy was introduced in Kenya in 2008 with an aim of making secondary education affordable so as to enhance access, transition and student academic performance. Studies in some parts of Kenya like Kangundo Sub County have revealed that subsidized fees at all levels of education and particularly at primary and secondary education level enhances access, transition and academic performance. This seemed not to be the case in Mbita and Suba sub counties, where the transition rates from 2010 to 2014 were 39.4, 41.2, 40.4, 54.5, 59.2 for Mbita, 56.2, 54.4, 61.1 and 59.2 for Suba which were lower than the national transition rates of 68.9, 69.4, 68.4, 76.8 and 80.4 for the same period. The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of Free Secondary Education policy on transition in Mbita and Suba Sub-counties. A conceptual framework based on the Psacharopoulous and Woodhall (1985) production function was adopted to determine the influence of Free Secondary Education policy on transition. The study findings revealed that Free Secondary Education policy influenced transition. However, Free Secondary Education policy had high influence in small and medium schools and very high influence in large schools. The government should therefore increase capitation fees for each student by 100%, employ more teachers, improve infrastructure and where possible merge small and medium schools for purpose of cost effectiveness. It is expected that the findings of this study may inform ministry of education, planners, teachers, parents and policy makers on strategies to improve or redesign Free secondary education policy to improve transition rates at the same time assist in the on-going search for efficient and quality education accessed by all.
Free Secondary Education policy was introduced in Kenya in 2008 ostensibly to make secondary school education affordable so as to enhance access, transition and student academic performance. Studies in USA, USSR, Japan, Sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of Kenya like Kangundo sub county have revealed that subsidized fees at all levels of education and particularly at primary and secondary school education levels enhance access, transition and academic performance. This seemed not to be the case in Mbita and Suba sub counties, where Gross Enrolment Rates were low at 4948 (33%) and 3546 (25%) respectively for the 2014 against national Gross Enrolment rate of 47.8%. The transition rates from 2010 to 2014 were 39.4%, 41.2%, 40.4%, 54.5%, 59.2% for Mbita Sub county, 56.2%, 54.4%, 61.1% and 59.2% for Suba Sub county which were lower than the national transition rates of 68.9%, 69.4%, 68.4%, 76.8% and 80.4% for the same period while academic performance mean scores in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education for 2011 and 2014 were low at 5.0 and 5.1 respectively. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of free secondary education policy on access to secondary school education in Mbita and Suba Sub-counties. The study involved the cohorts of students from the year 2008 to 2014, that is, the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 cohorts. Analysis of the impact of Free Secondary Education policy on access to secondary school education showed that free secondary education policy was inextricably connected with access to secondary school education. Also, it is noteworthy that the coefficient of Free secondary education funding in small secondary schools was statistically significant with a positive sign, which depicted that by one unit increase in Free Secondary Education funds, the increase in access was by 409.592 units, in medium secondary schools, the coefficient of Free Secondary Education funds was statistically significant with a positive sign which depicted that by one unit increase in Free Secondary Education funds, the increase in access was by 711.803 units and in large secondary schools, the coefficient of Free Secondary Education funds was statistically significant with a positive sign which depicted that by one unit increase in Free Secondary Education funds, the increase in access was by 3700.167 units. It is clear that on average, one unit increase in Free Secondary Education funds increased access to secondary school education by 947.489 units in Mbita and Suba Sub counties, Kenya.
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