ABSTRACT

In 2008 the government of Kenya started offering free tuition secondary education in all public secondary schools to reduce parental burden and improve on access, retention and quality of education. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of tuition fee waiver in reducing educational wastage in day secondary schools in Kisumu West District. Specific objectives of the study were to; analyze the dropout trend before and after the inception of tuition fee waiver in day schools in Kisumu West District, determine repetition trend before and after implementation of tuition fee waiver; evaluate challenges facing the effectiveness of tuition fee waiver in reducing educational wastage and find out measures put in place to reduce educational wastage after the introduction of tuition fee waiver. This study was guided by the Classical Liberal Theory of Equal Opportunity. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The target population included 36 public secondary school principals, 254 class teachers and the DEO, a total of 285. Simple random sampling was used to identify schools of study. The study sample comprised of 30 principals, 100 class teachers, and 1 DEO a size of 131 from 30 sample schools in the District. Before data collection permission was sought from the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation. The primary data was collected by administering questionnaire for the class teachers, principals and the D.E.O. Piloting of the research instruments was done in one school. .The qualitative and quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS version 17) in particular .The data was presented using tables, figures and graphs. Results of data analysis were presented using frequency distribution tables, bar graphs and pie charts. The study established that tuition fee waiver was effective in reducing drop out since the poor could afford little fees now and students retained in school as more parents are able to pay reduced fees. The study showed that tuition fee waiver reduced repetition rates mainly because school attendance was more regular thus better performance warranting promotion to the next level. The research established that the grave challenge facing the effectiveness of tuition fee waiver was the inadequacy of amount disbursed per student thus leading to fee increments by schools. The study revealed that head teachers undertook various measures to reduce wastage by accepting fees payments in kind, enhancing guidance and counselling, encouraging orphans to look for sponsors elsewhere and following up of bursaries for needy students. The study therefore recommends for timely disbursement of funds as per the tranches before schools open for the subsequent term and also include capitation for payment of BOM teachers.