Equity and efficiency in financing secondary education in Kenya: key issues in state-community partnership

In response to constraints in the public budget, which partly reflect a monumental quantitative growth in education since 1963, the Kenya Government has developed state-community partnership in the financing and management of secondary schools. It is envisaged that the great majority of secondary schools will become community institutions, with the periphery playing a much bigger role in financing and managing them. This policy has equity and efficiency implications. This paper, which is part of an on-going study on the financing and management of secondary education in Kenya, discusses current problems with regard to inadequacy of resources in institutions, disparity in the geographical distribution of secondary schools, the plight of poor families in meeting school expenses and bottle-necks in management practices. Recommendations on the reduction of inequity and increasing efficiency as state-community partnership is implemented are made. In the final section, the paper suggests that detailed formulation and implementation of policy would benefit from research in at least four spheres in which no studies are underway.