An Evaluation of Income Generating Projects in Public Secondary Schools in Nairobi County

Abstract

Research that almost all secondary schools in Kenya face serious financial difficulties due to failure by parents to pay fees.  As a result, schools are unable to meet their budgetary estimates, and this compromises the quality of secondary education in the country. Furthermore, there is rising concern about the amount of study time wasted by students as they are sent home for fees. At the same time, some head teachers feel that the recommended fees structure should be amended to allow schools to increase school fees in line with rising cost of living in the country. The problem addressed by this study, therefore, was that of the need for schools to make efficient use of all available opportunities to raise supplementary finances for funding their programs. The study therefore sought to find out how secondary schools in Nairobi County  had utilized existing school resources and income generating opportunities to raise extra funds for financing their programs. The study was carried out in secondary schools in Nairobi county 11 schools in  the county were selected representing 13% of  the 60 public secondary schools in the county. All the head teachers from the  schools participated in the study. The research instruments employed were questionnaires for head teachers and an observation schedule. After all data was collected, it was coded and entered in the computer for analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics such as percentages, means and frequencies were used to report the data, which was reported in summary form using frequency distribution tables. The schools earned between KShs 680,000 and KShs 6,000,000 annually from income generating activities, which is an indication that school-based income generating activities can be profitable ventures that schools could tap into to raise extra funds for financing educational programmes. Instead of over relying on the government and parents to raise funds for schools, head teachers should become more innovative and lead their schools to initiate activities that would be profitable for the schools. Furthermore, some of the initiatives are important learning opportunities for students. By incorporating participatory planning and innovative technologies, school head teachers will be able to overcome most of the challenges faced in implementation and management of school-based income generating initiatives.