Challenges Facing the Implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility Programs in Education Sector: A Survey of Private Primary Schools in Busia County, Kenya

The study was designed to find out if private primary schools engage in corporate social responsibility and the challenges faced by these schools as they implement corporate social responsibility. The study reviewed the theories of corporate social responsibility - stakeholders’ theory and classical theories were reviewed. The concept of corporate social responsibility under this study was heavily borrowed from the experience in the Philippines republic where Valdez (2012) believes that corporate social responsibility goes beyond just giving back to the society but helping in national building. Research targeted a population of 72 private primary schools spread across Busia County, Kenya. Data was collected by reliable means of questionnaires and unstructured interviews which were mainly to clarify questionnaires and seek clarification on responses. The research findings were analyzed using SPSS version 17 and tables, graphs, pie charts and percentages were used. To find the correlation between variables Spearman’s correlation and Pearson chi-square tests were used to establish the relationship between variables. The study found out that private schools where data was collected engage in varied corporate social responsibility activities in spite of challenges including financial, operational and socio-cultural. The corporate social responsibility activities were also found not to be explicitly known to all stakeholders. The management felt that they have responded well to corporate social responsibility issues. The study further found out there is an agreement by all respondents that corporate social responsibility fulfills senior management social mission. There was also an agreement among the respondents that corporate social responsibility helps the organization to motivate and retain staff.