School Choice between Public and Private Primary Schools under the Free Primary Education Policy in Rural Kenya
Contributor Name:
Sudakshina Mallick
The elimination of school fees from public primary education under the Free Primary Education (FPE) Policy in Kenya in 2003 increased enrollment by 22 percent in the first year alone. Some experts suggest that FPE has reduced the quality of education in public schools and increased student transfers from public to private schools.
The authors tracked primary school children over a period of three years to identify factors associated with school transfers. They found that:
- Proportion of children attending private schools increased from 4.8 percent to 12.2 percent from 2004 to 2007;
- School quality, measured by the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam score at the school level, has a positive impact on choice of private schools;
- School transfers occurred not only from public to private schools, but also between public schools;
- Children in relatively wealthy households have a higher probability of transferring to private schools than children in poorer households;
- Maintaining quality of education among public primary schools under the FPE Policy is an urgent policy agenda.