ABSTRACT

The growing expenses associated with education are often a catalyst for rising tuition and fees, and they play a large role as educators plan for the future of their institutions. The escalation of school fees at secondary level has been the immediate consequence of measures to be taken to reduce cost of education in Kenya. This study used a descriptive survey design where it targeted Principals in secondary schools of Kuresoi District in Rift Valley. The study stratified the schools into boarding and day schools and simple random samplings techniques to obtain schools to be studied in the District. In every stratum, the study randomly selected 40% of the schools and purposive sampling was used to select the head teachers in each school. The total numbers of secondary schools studied were 40. Data collection instruments used was questionnaires and interviews which were validated through a pilot study; questionnaire was given to principals while the interview schedules were used to solicit for more information from the PTA and BOG members of the schools. The data from the completed questionnaires was cleaned, re-coded and entered into the computer using SPSS V.16 statistical package analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data, while linear regression and Pearson‟s correlations were used to establish the strategies adopted by secondary schools principals to cope up with rising cost of education and its implication on quality of education in Kuresoi District. The boarding schools have managed to engage in farming activities to generate funds and were also getting help from CDF while the day schools were getting funding from the community and from nongovernmental organizations. Schools with large tracks of land have managed to generate extra incomes for the schools by using the land resource to their benefit. The biggest effect of the rising cost of education is the academic performance of the schools as opposed to the development of the schools and operations in the school. Schools should ensure that they fully utilize resources at their disposal to generate extra income for the schools with an aim of dealing with the rising costs in schools.