Optimal Pricing for Quality Education in Public Sub- county Secondary Schools in Busia County, Kenya

Hezekiah Adwar Othoo – Department of Education Psychology, Management and Policy Studies, Alupe University, Kenya
Carren Olendo – Department of Education Management and Foundation, Maseno University, Kenya
Julius Gogo – Department of Education Management and Foundation, Maseno University, Kenya
Email: hezruakas@gmail.com

Abstract: The government pricing guidelines has led to upsurge of enrolment in various secondary schools. This has fueled congestions in the classrooms and laboratories. Further, it has become difficult for teachers to offer individualized instruction due to chronic teacher shortages as the available ones deal with bloated classes. This has further interfered with assessment processes, which therefore, affects quality of education. For a county like Busia, with high poverty index of 69.3%, there could be challenges of resourcing schools for quality attainment. The purpose of this study was to determine the pricing guidelines that ensure optimal price for quality education in sub-county public secondary schools in Kenya. Stratified random sampling was used to select 60 schools out of 114, and purposive sampling to select 7 Sub County Directors of education, for the study. Questionnaires for principals, interview schedule for sub county directors of education; observation checklist and document analysis guide were used to collect data. The researchers pre-tested the instruments through a pilot study using 10 schools in the study population and obtained a reliability of 0.8 for Principals’ questionnaire. Quantitative data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics involving percentages, mean scores and multiple linear regressions. The pricing guidelines did not avail optimal price for quality education, thus for quality to be attained day scholars should be charged sh.48843 and boarders’ sh.65843. This study might help education economists and planners to come up with effective methods of pricing secondary education for quality purposes