An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Examination Performance, Teacher Qualification And The Amount Of Fees Paid In Selected Secondary Schools In Nairobi

Abstract

The ever-growing demand for education, the resultant expansion of education systems, rising costs in education because of inflation and the need for more and more sophisticated (and thus more expensive) equipment, have all led to increases in spending on education all over the world. There is enormous expenditure by parents on the education of their children right from primary level to secondary and finally to colleges and universities. Education significantly increases an individual earning power and thus education is considered as an avenue of moving out of poverty. Education also plays a crucial role in economic development of any country. There is high expenditure by parents on the education of their children right from primary level to secondary and finally to colleges and university. Hence, the whole question of the benefits accruing from such investments as education comes in mind of many parents when choosing the school to take their sons and daughters. This was a descriptive survey, which was designed with the objective of determining whether teacher qualification and fees paid influenced performance in secondary schools. The second objective was to determine whether there is a significant difference between fees paid in public and private secondary schools and the third objective was to determine whether there is a significant difference between performance in public and private secondary schools. The sample for this study was drawn from the eight administrative districts of the Nairobi Province. Purposive sampling was used to select the sample. Data was collected using secondary data from the Provincial Director of Education‟s Office, the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and spreadsheets were used to analyse data. Specifically, correlations, tests of significance and graphical analyses were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference between fees paid in private and public secondary schools contrary to popular belief. Teacher qualification was found to influence performance but fees paid was only found to influence performance in public secondary schools and not in private secondary schools. Public schools were also found to perform better than private secondary schools. The differences in performance of private and public secondary schools were also found to be statistically significant. These results have important implications for schools and the policy makers in the education sector.