CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION  
1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
An appraisal of Nigerian government funding indicates s that a significant portion is appropriated to funding education including secondary schools. However due to increasing cost of educational funding there has been calls to cut cost to reduce the overall cost of government spending in the educational sector. (Otieno & Colclough, 2009).But in view of the significance of the educational sector it is not proper to cut cost so as to avert the Damaging consequences. (Go, 2005).Therefore due to greater demand for education because the increased public demand for education and training has stretched the government budget so much, the government has, in response, had to intensify partnerships in educational funding with parents and communities, individual investors, civil society and donors. The education sector in Kenya, therefore, is financed from different sources depending on the categories of schools. Mainly public resources and grants from donors and bilateral loans fund the public education sector. Private investors, religious, charitable and other Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) also play a major role in financing education programs in various parts of the country (MOEST, 2001).Provision of quality secondary education is important in generating the opportunities and benefits of social and economic development as envisaged in vision 2030. The educational needs for secondary education have increased due to the introduction of Free Primary Education in 2003 and the increased transition rate. Secondary enrolment has grown from 0.9 million in 2004 and is expected to reach 2.7 million by 2015. This requires that the government commits more resources towards secondary education sub¬sector in recurrent and physical infrastructure expansion. Currently the government faces budgetary constraints with the treasury claiming that there are no funds to employ more teachers and meet physical infrastructural development. With the implementation of the devolved administrative systems, government expenditure on education is likely to increase even more. This therefore casts doubt on the sustainability of government funding. There is need for school managements to explore other alternative sources of financing secondary education in Kenya especially in the rural areas with an aim of achieving educational development goals, hence need for the study.