Influence of Government Funding Initiatives on Provision of Physical Infrastructure in Public Secondary Schools in Murang’a County, Kenya

Abstract

Government investment and leadership provide long-lasting solutions to the huge challenges facing our societies. The government has a crucial role to play in physical infrastructure development in its ability to provide innovations in financing and technical solutions for these projects in schools. Despite Government funding initiatives, schools are still experiencing inadequate physical infrastructure. With the 100 percent transition rate, Murang'a County recorded the highest transition rate at 107.66 percent, having expected 25,313 students but ended up enrolling 26,720 students (MOE, 2023). This study, therefore, assessed the influence of government funding initiatives on the provision of physical infrastructure in public secondary schools. The study used a descriptive survey research design that focused on summarizing and describing the main features of the data set. The target population consisted of 310 school principals, 3720 teachers and 8 sub-county directors of Education. Data collection was done using questionnaires, observation and interview schedules. Stratified sampling was employed to ensure representation of all categories of public secondary schools. From the selected schools, principals and teachers were respondents in this study, while data analysis was done using descriptive statistics in regard to the adequacy of physical infrastructure funding. The national government funding initiatives have provided adequate physical infrastructure compared to other funding models. Therefore, with regard to the findings, the majority (70.9%) of the respondents agreed that government funding had supported the provision of physical infrastructure, while a minority (29.1%) of the respondents disagreed that government funding had supported the provision of infrastructure in public secondary schools in Murang'a County. The study established that the main sources of funding from the national government include CDF, MIF, LATIF and ESP. The study established that funding initiatives from the government had a positive correlation with the provision of physical infrastructure in public secondary schools in Murang'a County.