The Relationship Between Adequacy of Facilities and Teachers and Enrolment in Low-Cost Boarding Primary Schools in Kajiado County

Abstract

Majority of the ASAL counties have continued to register a Net enrolment Rate of below 50%; against the best performing County of that posted NER of 107.5% (2016). The County of Kajiado had a NER of 79.1% in 2016 which is below the national average of 91.1%. There was, therefore, need to evaluate the (Low Cost Boarding Schools) LCBPs program in Kajiado County to propose strategies that respond to the educational needs for Nomadic-pastoral communities. Eleven (11) of the (392) Kenya’s LCBPs were in Kajiado County with an enrolment of 4,176 in 2016 and were under enrolled by the national standards. This process evaluation of the LCBPs used a combination of sequential mixed method, cross sectional and case study designs. The sample of the study was drawn from all pupils, teachers and head teachers in low-cost boarding primary schools in Kajiado County. Education officials and representatives of development partners supporting provision of education in Kajiado County provided useful information. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedules as well as observation of facilities. The findings of the evaluation established that LCBPs their present form did not respond to the educational needs of the nomadic and pastoral communities of Kajiado County. The schools were underfunded, had inadequate facilities, understaffed with teachers and other support staff. The food served was of low quality and inadequate. The study tested several hypotheses to support the findings. The test on relationship between the level of adequacy of facilities in the LCBPs and enrolment in Kajiado County showed a statistically significant relationship between the adequacy of electricity (Coeff = 0.001115; p = 0.019) and water (Coeff = 0.001252; p = 0.013) and enrolment. The relationship between the number of teachers in LCBPs and enrolment in the LCBPs in Kajiado was tested and showed a marginal relationship between the number of teachers and enrolment. However, these relationships were not statistically significant. This study recommends funding of LCBPs using a rationalised unit cost of maintaining a child in the school; Introduction of a national educational levy from resources generated by the nomadic production system and application of a multi-sectoral approach in the provision of educational services the nomadic pastoral communities.