The Effect of Lunch Levies on Learners' Participation in Public Day Secondary Schools in West Pokot County, Kenya

Author

Elvis Kokwo, Jane Barasa, Julius Maiyo

Abstract

 Access to quality education is a fundamental human right and a key driver of socioeconomic development. In Kenya, sustained efforts to expand educational access culminated in the 2008 introduction of the Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) policy, which sought to eliminate tuition fees and make secondary education more affordable and accessible regardless of socioeconomic background. Despite this landmark intervention, many public day secondary schools have continued to impose supplementary levies, including teacher motivation fees, lunch levies, development levies, and remedial levies, that significantly hinder learner participation, particularly among students from economically vulnerable households. Understanding the effect of these extra levies on learner engagement is therefore critical to ensuring that secondary education remains genuinely accessible, equitable, and inclusive. This paper addresses one component of that broader inquiry, focusing specifically on the effect of lunch levies on learners' participation in public day secondary schools in West Pokot County, Kenya. The study was anchored on three interrelated theoretical frameworks: Educational Production Function Theory, Human Capital Theory, and Social Exclusion Theory, which conceptualise educational outcomes as the product of interacting inputs, including financial resources, institutional conditions, and household socioeconomic characteristics. A descriptive survey design was employed to facilitate systematic data collection across a diverse group of respondents. The target population comprised 1,468 students, 161 parent chairpersons, and 161 principals drawn from public day secondary schools across the county, from which 147 students (10%) and 50 parent chairpersons (30%) were selected through simple random sampling, alongside 50 principals (30%) selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using structured questionnaires administered to 113 responding students and 37 responding parents, and semi structured interviews with 32 principals, enabling both quantitative measurement and qualitative insight into learners' and households' experiences of lunch levies and participation. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, and weighted means) alongside Pearson correlation and simple bivariate regression to determine the nature, direction, and strength of the relationship between lunch levies and learner participation. Findings revealed that lunch levies had a statistically significant influence on learner participation in public day secondary schools in West Pokot County, F(1, 125) = 101.830, p < .001, explaining 44.9% of the variance in participation (R² = .449, B = .246, p < .001); the null hypothesis was accordingly rejected. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the Ministry of Education undertake a comprehensive and periodic review of the FDSE financing framework and fee guidelines to reduce the financial burden of supplementary levies on learners and their families, extend dedicated feeding capitation to public day secondary schools, and strengthen enforcement of existing directives against fee based exclusion from school meals.

Keywords

Lunch levies, Learners' participation, Public day secondary schools, Learners, West Pokot County, Kenya

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