The effects of free schooling on quality education in public primary schools in Gachoka division Mbeere south sub county

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of free schooling on quality of education in public primary schools in Gachoka Division, Mbeere South Sub-county. The objective of the study was to determine the influence of learning and teaching facilities on quality education, to establish the relationships between the head teacher preparedness on financial management and quality education and to establish the influence of teacher – pupil ratio on quality education. The researcher used descriptive survey research design in which 143 respondents comprising 20 head teachers, 120 teachers’ and 3 quality assurance and standard officers were used. Data was collected using questionnaires. The study also used interview schedules to collect data. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages presented in tables facilitated by statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 21.The study established that the availability of teaching and learning resources influenced implementation of FPE to some extent as lack of some materials such as text books made it difficult for the teaching and learning process to continue smoothly. Based on the findings of this study the government needs to employ more teachers. The study established that the teacher pupil ratio influenced quality of education negatively since there is shortage of teachers to counter for the massive enrolment levels that had increased with the introduction of free primary education. The quality of education declined since the teachers were not enough to give serious attention to pupils and to mark pupil’s assignments. The study also established that financial management influenced free schooling as the findings indicated that procurement of goods was done according to the Procurement Act and the FPE funds was managed to a large extent without corruption. The study recommended that the government should post more teachers in Gachoka Division, Mbeere South District and the head teachers should be trained on financial management for effective implementation of free schooling.