Discussion Paper No. 104 of 2009 on Determinants of Primary Schooling in Kenya

Abstract

Recent policy initiatives on education have focused on improving access to education and retaining pupils in schools through equity and quality enhancing policies such as the Free Primary Education (FPE). However, despite FPE, some parents are still keeping their children at home, while others have sought private schooling where they pay fees. This study applies a multinomial logit model on data obtained from the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey of 2005/06 to investigate how household characteristics such as the education of the household head, household expenditure, and school characteristics such as fees, test scores and pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) influence parents’ choice of primary schooling for their children. The results indicate that the non-schooling option is highly influenced by household characteristics, which include child’s age, number of siblings, schooling of the household head and area of residence, while the private school option is influenced by almost all household characteristics and schoollevel factors. Surprisingly, distance, pupil-teacher ratio and performance in examinations do not seem to affect the probability of enrolling children in private schools. Urban households are more likely not to enroll their children in school, but more likely to send them to private schools after deciding to enroll them. In general, the study finds that parents consider quality when making schooling decisions for their children. Therefore, policies addressing school quality are likely to be more effective in increasing school enrolment. To increase quality there is need to improve school infrastructure and address teacher shortages in some schools.