Abstract

Mwangi T.D

Kenya must invest more in education to realize her vision 2030. The government commitment to
Education for All’s goal has been expressed through provision of basic education in pre-primary,
primary and secondary school levels. To this end, the government introduced two kitties; Free Primary
Education in 2003 and Subsidized Secondary Education in 2008 (where the government paid tuition
fees for the students in secondary schools), but left parents to finance Early Childhood Development
and Education. Since public centers were not well equipped, only the poor parents enrolled their
children. The study was carried out in Nyahururu District in 2010, to assess the impacts of the two
government kitties on public Early Childhood Development and Education centers in Kenya. To
evaluate the impact of the kitties on the public Early Childhood Development and Education centers,
private centers were also studied together. The study revealed that while the kitties led to rising
enrolment in primary, secondary school and private Early Childhood Development and Education
centers, enrolment declined in public centers. The two have lowered the quality of education in public
Early Childhood Development and Education centers since parents were unwilling to raise finances
enough to employ and motivate teachers, buy teaching/learning resources, school facilities and school
feeding program. High enrolment after Free Primary Education also took up classrooms meant for Early
Childhood Development and Education in public centers.