Factors Influencing Internal Efficiency of Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma County

Noah Murumbakiveu, Prof. Anthony K. Sang, Prof. Fred Ngesa

Education plays a critical role in promoting economic, social, cultural and political development of individuals, communities, nations and humanities. The Government of Kenya has consequently been allocating substantial resources to the education sector. In fact, the Government has been shouldering tuition fees in all public secondary schools since 2008. Despite these efforts by the Government, there are notable wastage in secondary school education sector. It has been noted that individuals, societies and humanity can realize returns to education if schools are operated efficiently. This study was designed to establish factors influencinginternal efficiency of public secondary schools in Bungoma County. Internal efficiency is the flow of students from the point of entry to the point of completion with minimum dropout and repetition. In this study, the indicators of internal efficiency are progression and completion rates. A descriptive survey design was used. The sampling units were public secondary schools in the County. By the time of study, there were 130 public secondary schools in the County.  Stratified random sampling was used to sample schools while purposive sampling was used to sample head teachers and class teachers in the sampled schools. Therefore the population was 130 head teachers and 520 teachers. A sample of 97 head teachers and 388 class teachers were drawn from a population. A questionnaire was used to gather data from head teachers and class teachers. Students’ record collection schedule was used to gather data to the study. The questionnaire and students’ record collection schedule were validated by constructing relevant items based on the objectives and reviewed by four lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Community Studies, Egerton University. The lecturers’ comments were incorporated in the final questionnaire and schedule to enhance validity. A reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was calculated and found to be 0.83 using Cronbach alpha. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. Descriptive statistics used were frequencies and percentages. The study established that public schools in Bungoma County were experiencing internal inefficiency. On average dropout rates were 24%. The findings imply that a substantive percentage of learners are not completing basic education. They drop out before acquiring necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to actively participate in development process. The Ministry of education should enact appropriate strategies aimed at retaining learners in public secondary schools