Abstract
Public secondary schools in Kenya are expected to operate at affordable and sustainable costs. Despite this expectation, the cost of education in relative terms in most public secondary schools in Bomet County is still high. This may be an indicator that public schools are cost inefficient in their operations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating influence of financial management skills on the influence of selected school characteristics on cost efficiency of public secondary schools in Bomet County, Kenya. The target population was two hundred and seventy principals of public secondary schools and all the five Sub-County Directors of Education in Bomet County. A sample of one hundred and seventy-five principals was selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather data from the principals and an interview schedule was used to solicit data from the Sub-county Directors of Education. The Content Validity Index was used to check for validity, and it found that all variables had an S-CVI of greater than 0.9, indicating that they were all valid and could be used in the study. All variables had Cronbach alpha coefficients of greater than 0.7, indicating that the variables were internally reliable enough to be used in the study. The data was analysed and summarized using descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, means, and standard deviations. To test the hypotheses, the researchers employed a moderated multiple linear regression analysis in inferential statistics to see how well financial management skills had a moderating effect on the influence of selected school characteristics on cost efficiency of public secondary schools in Bomet County, Kenya. Statistical operations on data analysis were performed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) statistics software. The study concluded that financial management skills did not have moderating influence on the relationship between selected school characteristics and cost efficiency of public secondary schools in Bomet County. This was linked to low financial management abilities of the stakeholders, which were characterized by poor financial mobilization skills of school alumni and school administrators. According to the study, the ministry of education should invest in capacity building for school administrators on financial management in order to improve cost efficiency in public secondary schools in Bomet County. School administrators, in particular, require capacity building in order to enhance skills on school resource mobilization. This could create appropriate resources to keep the schools running optimally in terms of cost. Keywords: Cost Efficiency, Public Secondary Schools, principal financial management skills DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-4-02 Publication date: February 28 th 2022
Highlights
Educational expenditures have been used in the literature to explain cost efficiency in education
The current study examined cost efficiency in public secondary schools in Kenya using predictive research design which posed a difference from the study
Using a survey research design, the findings reveal that principals did not apply safety and maintenance strategies in teaching resulting in failure to achieve the set educational aims
Summary
Educational expenditures have been used in the literature to explain cost efficiency in education. In a study conducted in Nairobi County in Kenya to investigate strategies to resolve cost inefficiency in secondary schools using descriptive survey research design, Ngure and Karuru (2017) found that existing school resources were not used effectively. Using descriptive statistics to analyze data, a study conducted by Muriuki et al (2017) to www.iiste.org examine efficiency in girls’ secondary schools in Bomet County, found that high indirect costs of educating girls were associated with low completion rates. This was attributed to the inability of parents to raise the required school fees to sustain their girls and ensure schools realized the intended objectives.
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