The Influence Of Free Primary Education And School Feeding Programme On Pupil’s Enrolment In Gakawa Education Zone, Kenya

The introduction in January 2003 of Free Education Primary Education in all public Primary Schools in Kenya was the climax of the heavy investment and importance that Kenya has laid on Primary education. The government also was obliged to honour the campaign pledge of the NARC party in the 2002 elections where they promised to introduce free and compulsory primary education for all public primary schools (NARC manifesto, 2002). The actualization of the pledge in January 2003 resulted in a sudden rise in public primary enrolment from 5.9. million in 2002 (Republic of Kenya, 2003) to 7.1. million in .January. The Government also invested in the provision of food to the schools through the support of World Food Programme (WFP) which donated food under the School Feeding Progamme (SFP) in the arid and semi arid areas as well as pockets of poverty areas like urban slums. The aim was to attract more pupils to school and also improve retention and completion rates. This study therefore was an attempt to establish how the provision of FPE and SFP have impacted on pupil enrolment in Gakawa education zone and also identify the challenges that faced the provision of EPE and SFP in relation to influencing the pupils enrolment. Descriptive research design was used in the study. A sample of 6 public primary schools was taken &orn a population of 12 schools using stratified and simple random sampling. Headteachers and teachers questionnaires with both closed and open-ended questions were used to collect data. An analysis of these findings indicated that FPE and SFP have led to increased enrolment in the public primary schools in Gakawa zone. However both SFP and FPE funds were found to be inadequate. It was recommended that GOK increases the FPE funding in order for the schools to attract higher enrolment. The SFP was recommended to be fully funded to also include other components such as cooks, wages and cooking materials and to include all public primary schools. These findings are of great value to the GOK and other stakeholders in education in their endeavour to realize Education For All (EFA) by 2015 through FPE.