Effect of cost of schooling on the participation of children in basic education in Samburu County, Kenya

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effect of the cost of schooling on children’s participation in basic education in Samburu County, Kenya. Data were gathered and analysed using Excel and SPSS computer packages and presented using descriptive and inferential statistics. The specific tools used were frequencies, cross-tabulations, contingency tables, chi-square, multiple regression, correlation, and qualitative presentation in quotations. The study findings reveal that a facility-specific factor, such as cost, is the main factor affecting access to basic formal education in Samburu district and, by implication, other nomadic pastoral areas. From the study findings, it emerges that the cost of education has a significant influence on access to basic formal education. As a result, the study recommends that more schools be available in nomadic pastoral areas, promoting other alternative forms of education, developing the nomadic people’s economic resource- livestock- and subsidising the cost of schooling. Accordingly, for the nomadic pastoralists to be able to meet the cost of basic formal education in the era of cost-sharing, there is a dire need to strengthen their economic base- livestock. The latter can be done by opening up markets where they can sell their livestock.