FREE DAY SECONDARY EDUCATION POLICY AND STUDENT ATTENDANCE RATES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN TURKANA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of free day secondary education policy on student attendance in secondary schools in Turkana County. The study was guided by the Classical Liberal Theory of Equal Opportunities. The study adopted a mixed research design utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The study target population was 451 respondents consisting of both education officers, school principals and teachers. A cluster sample design was used to arrive at sample size of 212 respondents. The study used interview schedules and structured questionnaires to gather primary data from respondents and secondary data consisted of the use of document analysis targeting official records from sampled schools and the county education office. Data was analyzed using the SPSS Version 22 and included use of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The mean, frequencies, and percentages were the descriptive statistics that were used while correlation and regression was used as inferential statistics. The study sought to determine the extent to which Free Day Secondary Education policy influences school attendance in education by the students in public secondary schools in Turkana County. The study finding rejected the null hypothesis and therefore concluded that Free Day Secondary Education policy significantly affects school attendance in education in secondary schools in Turkana County. The study concluded that free day secondary school education has positively influenced attendance in education. The researcher made the following recommendations; that the government should come up with mechanisms to monitor and evaluate FDSE funded projects in public secondary schools to ensure accountability. Based on the other finding that the government subsidies were not adequate to support acquisition of teaching and learning resources, the researcher recommended that the government should increase its allocation towards subsidizing teaching and learning resources in schools in the country.

Key Words: Free Day Secondary Education Policy, Student Attendance Rates, Public Secondary Schools County, Kenya

CITATION: Barasa, M. W., Maiyo, J. K., & Barasa, J. (2021). Free day secondary education policy and student attendance rates in public secondary schools in Turkana County, Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 8 (3), 870 – 880.