Application of GIS to the administration of bursary in Technical Training Institutes in Kenya. Case study: Kitale Technical Training Institute

Abstract

When the Government realized that growing poverty levels had affected about 46% of Kenyan households, thereby affecting their ability to afford fees, it introduced a bursary scheme for tertiary technical training institutes targeting members of prioritized equity categories. The scheme needs to be administered strategically to enhance equity. One of the strategies to improve governance development of a bursary management information system (BMIS) for handling and processing of bursary data. The BMIS will foster efficiency, transparency and accountability as well as monitoring how well the objectives of the bursary scheme are being met. This has never been done in the technical training institutes.

A database is critical for establishing the proposed bursary management information system for the institutes. Thus the aspect of development of a suitable database is at the core of efficiency, transparency and accountability in equitable bursary disbursement. The overall objective of the study was to develop a GIS database for a bursary information management system. The steps that were undertaken involved collecting and preparing relevant data, synthesizing user requirements,design and buidling the database. Bursary records from Kitale TTl were used in testing of the GIS Database.

The database was then used to respond to selected spatial and attribute query criteria that would aid equitable bursary decision making, and found to demonstarte expected functionalities. The significant results are that the GIS database efficiently stores together and handles various records on students, bursary applicants and recipients whereas these are currently kept for different years in different files by different departments. Also it responds instantly to queries, thus providing outputs required for urgent reporting on bursary or decision making.

From the results, it was concluded that the GIS database development project was a success. It was further noted that the database maximizes convenience, timeliness, transparency and efficiency in linking and integrating general student admission records with bursary records in terms of storage, handling, processing and analysis. The outputs gee rated from the GIS database can be relied onto decide how bursaries which have been awarded in the past were or were not distributed equitably and hence make necessary decisions to balance the distribution as deemed fit.

The results generated by means of the developed GIS Database indicate that the distribution of past bursaries at Kitale TTl was not equitable. Therefore, based on the above conclusions, the main recommendation is that Kitale TTl and other institutes should adapt and apply a GIS system to the administration of their own bursaries in order to take advantage of the high level of convenience, efficiency, accountability and transparency that will come with the GIS.