Relationship Between Income Generating Activities and School Operations in Public Secondary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Free Day Secondary School Education policy was introduced in Kenya to ensure accessibility of education to all.  Public secondary schools have consistently not been able to mobilize enough funds for their operations over the years. The inability to mobilize adequate funds not only affects school budgets but also core functions such as teaching and learning. Income diversification is among the strategies that schools can adopt to mitigate against financial constraints. This paper investigated the relationship between income generating activities and operations of public secondary schools in Nakuru County. The study was grounded on the Resource-Based Theory and adopted the correlational research design. The target population was 365 public secondary school principals and the same number of school bursars in Nakuru County. Random sampling was done using a formula developed by Nassiuma (2000). to get a sample size of 51 school principals and 51 school bursars. A bursars’ questionnaire and principal’s interview schedule were used to collect data. The face and content validity of the bursars’ questionnaire and principals’ interview guide were checked through expert judgment. The reliability of the bursars’ questionnaire was estimated using the Cronbach Alpha method. The instrument was reliable as its coefficient was 0.762. Quantitative data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Science. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically through the inductive method. Hypothesis was tested at the .05 level of significance using Pearson’s Correlations. The findings indicated that the income generating activities schools engaged in were farming (49.3%), charging registration (49.3%) and tuition (38.7%) fees. Schools’ operations index was at 2.88 out of 5 points rating scale. The results also indicated that there was a positive and statistically significant relationship between engagement in income generating activities and school operations, r(29) = .500, p =. 004.The study concluded that engagement in income generating activities influences schools’ operations. These findings may assist school managers come up with measures that help schools reduce disruptions to their calendar due to financial challenges.