The influence of the constituency development fund on the Improvement of the secondary school physical resources and Needy students in Embakasi, Kenya

Abstract

Education is widely seen as one of the most promising paths for individuals to realize better, more productive lives and as one of the primary drivers of national economic development. The citizens and the government of Kenya have invested heavily in improving both the access and quality of education, in an effort to realize the promise of education as well as to achieve the education-related Millennium Development Goals and Vision 2030.There are many funds that are channeled towards education in Kenya. The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is one of the devolved funds in Kenya. Prior to the establishment of CDF the constituency was solely a unit of political representation in Kenya, of which there are 210 in the country. CDF provides that at least 2.5% of government revenue was allocated to the fund, which is geared towards the alleviation of poverty and promotion of local development. CDF contributes over 10% to all development in Kenya. In the recent years, the CDF has been used in pioneering many secondary schools in constituencies around Kenya. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the CDF on the improvement of secondary school education in Embakasi constituency. The study will employ a descriptive research design. The target population was all the principals and teachers in Embakasi constituency while accessible population was principals and sampled teachers. Stratified sampling was used to select participating schools while all the principals from the sampled schools were purposively selected to participate in this study. Simple random sampling was used to select teachers from each secondary school Data was collected using questionnaires for principals (PQS) and teachers' questionnaires (TQS). Content, construct and face validity of the instruments were verifiied by five research experts drawn from the Education department of Nairobi University. Descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies and percentage was used to analyze data with the help of statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) version 17.0. The study found out that CDF has greatly helped to improve the general welfare of students through erection of classrooms, toilets and libraries, sponsorship of needy students and provision of information technology equipment like computers and recommended further research in measures to enhance accountability, improve transparency and other means of aiding the needy students. The findings of this study may be useful to Kenya Institute of Education (KIE), Ministry of Education, CDF committees and also school administrators to put in place policies and resources that may help in improving education in secondary schools