Factors influencing effective implementation of free secondary education project in Kangema District, Murang'a County, Kenya

Abstract

The implementation of free primary education resulted in substantial growth in enrollment. Accordingly, the implementation of Free Secondary Education project is bound to create additional challenges such as demand for more teachers as well as facilities to cater for expanded enrollment. The purpose of this research was to investigate factors influencing effective implementation of Free Secondary Education project.

Literature review focused on what. other researchers and authors had pointed out concerning effective implementation of Free Secondary Education project. It further focuses on an in-depth analysis of factors influencing effective implementation of Free Secondary Education project as captured by the conceptual framework. The study was conducted using descriptive survey. Questionnaire that targeted 25 secondary school principals was used to collect the data.

The findings indicated 100% of principals felt the need for the government to increase the current funding in order to promote FSE project. The findings also revealed that 72% of principals explained the urgent need for hiring more teachers to take care of increasing student enrollment. In addition, 100% of principals agreed that District Education Officer support have greatly influenced effective implementation of Free Secondary Education project.

The researcher recommends that the government should increase the funding of Free Secondary Education project and employ timely disbursement of funds. Moreover, the government through Teachers Service Commission should employ more teachers to cope with increase in student enrollment. The researcher suggested that further research can be done to cover other districts. In future a comparative research can be done on effective implementation of FSE project in day and boarding schools. In addition there is need to research on quality of secondary education since implementation of Free Secondary Education project.