Income Generating Activities and Its Contribution to Financial Performance of Public Secondary Schools in Nyamira County, Kenya

Abstract

This study intended to document the contribution of IGAs to the financial performance of the public secondary schools in Nyamira County. The introduction of Free Secondary Education brought massive financial calamities, and most schools are operating negatively in relation to cost. The objectives were to examine the type of IGAs engaged in public secondary schools in Nyamira County and to ascertain the factors influencing the performance of income-generating Activities in public secondary schools in Nyamira County. This research used Resource Dependence Theory. The study embraced a descriptive research design. Target population was 5 County education officers, 147 principals, 1076 teachers, and 37,070 students in Nyamira County. The researcher purposefully sampled 5 County Education Officers. Simple random sampling was embraced to get 15 Principals, 108 teachers, and finally 240 students. A total of 368 respondents took part in this investigation. Interview schedules and research questionnaires were used to gather data. Piloting of the instrument was done. The data were gathered through editing, coding, tabulating, and then analyzed, and SPSS 23 was applied. Quantitative data were displayed by descriptive statistics like tables. The qualitative data were presented in narrations. The research revealed that income-generating activities contribute immensely to the financial performance of learning institutions in Nyamira County. The research revealed that participation in IGAs is done in many schools with activities like crop cultivation, livestock rearing, school bus hiring, renting school premises, and agro-forestry. Numerous factors, such as the size of the project, school liquidity, inadequate finances, politics, supervision, operating costs, management capacity, and level of development in learning institutions, influenced income-generating activities in schools. The study recommends that a policy framework on income-generating activities to engage in should be formulated, regular training to equip teachers with skills to manage income-generating activities, proper record keeping should be embraced to ensure there is accountability in learning institutions, the ministry of education should encourage schools to partner with different agencies and sponsors to finance in this county and beyond.