Influence of constituency development fund on student enrollment in district secondary schools in Shinyalu constituency, Kakamega county

Abstract

With the coming to power of the NARC government in 2003, Kenya witnessed a shift to a new fiscal decentralisation system through Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which currently operates under the CDF Act 2013.Through CDF, tremendous developments have been witnessed throughout the Republic including in education. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) on student enrollment in District secondary schools in Shinyalu Constituency of Kakamega County. The study’s objectives were: to determine influence of CDF’s infrastructure projects on student enrollment in district secondary schools in Shinyalu Constituency ; to establish influence of CDF bursary on student enrollment in district secondary schools in Shinyalu Constituency ; to examine how amount of CDF fund disbursed influence in district secondary student enrollment schools in Shinyalu Constituency; and to explore influence of time taken to disburse CDF fund on student enrollment in District secondary schools in Shinyalu Constituency. The study used a sample size of 364. The study used descriptive survey research design. Questionnaires were the tool used to collect data. Data was then analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentage tables. Statistical package for social sciences aided in analysing quantitative data. From the analysis, it was found out that 136 of the student respondents had never received bursary funds and only 12 of the student respondents had received CDF bursary funds four times. 105 of the student respondents had received CDF bursary funds once while 50 of the student respondents had received CDF bursary funds thrice. This limited funding could be attributed to nepotism, corruption and lack of political will by both politicians and CDF committee. Similarly it was found out that 231 of the student respondents said that the amount of CDF bursary given was not enough to meet their needs to pay school fees and only 82 of the student respondents said that the amount of CDF bursary given was enough to meet their needs to pay school fees. 20 of the student respondents were not sure of the influence of CDF bursary allocation to the students in district secondary schools in Shinyalu Constituency in Kakamega County. In order to improve the enrollment and retention rate of students in public district secondary schools in Shinyalu Constituency, it was recommended that the bottlenecks facing the management of the CDF funds would be addressed. The bottlenecks included: favoritism, political interference, poor management skills and corruption in the study area. Some of the recommendations made included: Firstly, The Constituency Development Fund should allocate enough funds in good time to schools to ensure that facilities like classrooms, science laboratories and libraries among others are constructed and are completed and adequately equipped for enhanced enrollment. Secondly, the Constituency Development Fund should provide enough bursary allocations and disbursed in time to the deserving students, and in line with the school term calendar. Thirdly, timely disbursement of infrastructure funds and bursaries to schools is necessary. This is to enable the student beneficiaries limit loss of time due to absenteeism when out to fill gaps unmet by bursary in terms of school fees.