Effectiveness of Decentralized Education Bursary Fund in Enhancing Equity in Access and Participation in Public Secondary Schools, in Kajiado County, Kenya

The secondary schools bursary fund was introduced in 1993/1994 financial year to enhance access, ensure retention and reduce the disparities and inequalities in provision of secondary education in Kenya. Decentralization witnessed communal involvement in decision making and it was anticipated that there will be fairness and efficiency in the whole process. Nevertheless, cases of complaints by various stakeholders still abound. Renewed interest led to the introduction of secondary school subsidy by the government in 2008, which is more favorable to day schools, however, boarding school students have to pay extra charges for boarding facilities. This, together with opportunity cost for both day and boarding schools students justify the continuation of secondary school bursary fund. This paper study specifically looked at the trend in allocation of decentralized bursary fund in the years 2008-2011, the relationship between socio economic status and bursary demand and supply, the challenges and the policy reforms in tackling the bottlenecks. The study employed a descriptive survey and phenomenological design and was conducted in 14 public secondary schools. A sample of 345 students, 14 head teachers, 12 Kajiado constituency bursary committee members and 2 area education officers was surveyed. Data was collected using pre tested Questionnaires for head teachers, bursary recipients and non recipients that yielded a correlation co-efficiency of 0.923. Interview guide for the Kajiado Constituency Bursary Committee and area education officers was used and finally document analysis. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive, Lorenz curve, Gini co efficiency and inferential statistics. The Findings of the study observed  that: (a) the number of bursary applicants has continued to increase but there is reduction in amount being allocated to each constituency; (b) the bursary award has no relationship with the beneficiary’s socio-economic and  the average amount of money distributed depends more on the location than ones socio economic status; (c) More boys than girls get Bursary fund allocation; (d) that there is no statistically significant difference in allocations between students in provincial and district schools; (e)  the students from private and day schools have been included to benefit leading to awards spread thinly to many students. Among other challenges include: the whole process was marred by political influence. Students were exaggerating fees with little verification from schools as constituency bursary committee lacked the funds to make follow up with lack of proper recording system. From the findings, the reforms needed include: (a) a policy on inclusion of day and private schools students as beneficiaries of bursary, needs to be clear and documented; (b) the use of locations to consider those with high population and it be based on poverty index of each location and number of needy students;(c ) there is need for an independent structured management team to be instituted whose work is monitoring and to evaluate the work of CBC and the DEB body at county level; (d) Need to set up a data bank calling for increase administrative funding for CBC and need for capacity building for CBC members; (e) There is need for policies on proper definition of orphans; and (f) the CBC should access lists by other bursary providers to avoid double duplications in disbursement.