The Degree to Which Parents’ Association Costs Predict Secondary School Students’ Gross Attendance Ratio in Laikipia County, Kenya

This study seeks to examine the extent to which private costs influence the participation of students in public day secondary schools in Laikipia County. The study was necessitated by the declining students’ participation in public day secondary schools as measured by gross attendance ratio and gross enrolment ratio specifically in Laikipia County. The objective of the study was to examine the extent to which private costs influence the participation of students in public day secondary schools in Laikipia County. This study was guided by two theories: Production Function Theory of Education & the Equity Theory of Motivation. The research gathered both qualitative and quantitative data simultaneously using convergent parallel mixed methods design. The target population was 19,065 respondents, of whom were, five sub County directors of education; 78 principals; 7,800 form three and four parents; 8,870 form three and four students, and 312 form three and four class teachers. Census was used to select five SCDEs, stratified random sampling was used to select 25 principals and 400 students, simple random sampling to select 400 parents and 100 class teachers to make a sample size of 930 participants. Both probability and non-probability sampling methods were used to select a sample size of 930 participants. Data was gathered from both primary and secondary sources. Questionnaires were utilized to gather primary data from class teachers, students and parents while structured interview schedules were utilized to gather qualitative data from the sub County directors of education and principals. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was computed and a level of 0.87 was achieved. The research utilized tangerine electronic data collection software used for data entry and data cleaning. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze quantitative data. Iterative Thematic Inquiry (ITI) was utilized to analyze qualitative data.