Quota Admission Policy and Its Impact on Equitable Access to Quality Secondary School Education in Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

Through its secondary school quota admission policy, the Ministry of Education in Kenya endeavors to ensure equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities by placing students into various categories of secondary schools based on sub county quotas as well as public-private primary schools quotas. The quota admission policy is intended to ensure that students from lower socioeconomic status are given opportunities to attend national and extra county secondary schools. However, every year after the initial placement of students into various categories of secondary schools about 23.01% of students fail to join secondary schools of initial placement but seek transfer to join other schools through a replacement process. In this regard, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of quota admission policy on equitable access to quality secondary school education in Kakamaga County in Kenya. The specific objectives of this study were; (i) to determine the impact of students’ type of primary school attended on equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities, (ii) to determine the impact of students’ sub county of residence on equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities, (iii) to determine the impact of students’ socioeconomic status on equitable access to quality secondary school education opportunities. Stratified sampling, proportional sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to arrive at a sample of 280 students from 2 National schools, 480 from 6 Extra County schools, 500 from 7 County schools, and 960 from 30 Sub County secondary schools. The sample also included 45 principals. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Questionnaires were used to collect data and descriptive statistics used to analyze the collected data. The study findings indicated a higher representation of students who attended private primary schools in the national (63.1%) and extra county (56.5%) secondary schools compared to students who attended public primary schools. The results further indicated that students from upper (57.3%) and middle (50.8%) socioeconomic status were highly represented in the national and extra county secondary schools compared to students from lower socioeconomic status. The study recommends that the government should address factors that impede students who attend public primary schools especially those from lower socioeconomic status to join national and extra county secondary schools. Keywords: quota selection admission policy, equitable access, quality secondary education, socioeconomic status, initial placement, replacement. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-32-07 Publication date: November 30 th 2022