A Study Of Educational Expenditures In Kenya 1963-1975

Abstract

In recent years, government expenditures on education in Kenya have been growing at 20 to 25 percent a year. Meanwhile, the government revenue has been increasing at about 17 percent a year. If these trends were allowed to continue, within 15 to 20 years, education would consume the entire governmental budget. There are several

factors which have contributed to this rapid rise in total educational expenditures during the period 1963 to 1975. The problem in this study was to analyze the relationship

between the rise in total educational expenditures in Kenya between the years 1963 and 1975 and the rise in 27 economic-educational variables. A sub problem of the study was to determine which of these variables were ~he best predictors of total educational expenditures. The 27 economic-educational variables were grouped into (1) economic variables, (2) education expenditures by levels of education, (J) educational enrollments, 04) the teaching labor force and (5) examinations.

Sources of raw data included the Ministry of Education annual reports, economic reviews, statistical abstracts and the 1974-78 Government Development Plan. These data were analyzed through, first, the growth rates, unit costs and teacher/pupil ratio procedures and secondly, through bi-variate correlation analysis, scatter grams and stepwise multiple regression Analysis procedures. During the stepwise multiple regression analysis, all the 27 economic-educational variables were analyzed together, then analyzed by variable clusters and finally these variables were collapsed into four new variables--(l) econom1.c variable, (2) the teaching labor force, (3) educational enrollment, and (4) examinations variable. The study confirmed that the total educational expenditures

had risen faster than all the selected economic-educational variables except the expenditures on administration and higher education. Twenty-four out of the 27 economic-educational variables analyzed showed high positive correlation coefficients of over 0.9000 while the remaining three variables had high positive correlation coefficients of over 0.8000. ~Fuentes effects of other variables were controlled, secondary school enrollment was shown to be the best predictor of total educational expenditures. Educational enrollments were shown to be the best predictor of the total educational expenditures wh~n new variables were analyzed. From the study it was concluded that the rise in total educational expenditures has been closely associated with:

(1) high rate of economic growth during the study period

(2) govenment policies

(3) increased enrollments

(4) improvement in quality of education especially through better qualified teaching force (5) inflation. Based on the study,it was recommended that the economic system should be restructured so as to provide mote resource for education. The educational system should also be restructured so as to realize greater economies and to fit the needs of the economy.