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The category of the secondary school your child attends largely determines their success or failure, a survey shows.

A report by Usawa Agenda Secondary School released yesterday shows National schools enjoy greater privilege compared to their sub-county counterparts both in staffing and funding.

Usawa Agenda Executive Director Dr Emmanuel Manyasa said time has come for Kenyans to critically make analysis on leveling the education field as a way of fostering education justice for every child.

“This disproportionate resource allocation based on the category of school one attends therefore impacts their performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations more than their secondary school entry marks. In essence, Sub-County schools offer the least opportunity to excel while National schools offer the best opportunity to excel,” he said.

“As a country, we are working to achieve the SDG 4, which is to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’. The pursuit of the SDG 4, is anchored on the presumption that the school system is just and equitable and that what every learner emerges with from it is a true reflection of their ability and effort. Well, the evidence at hand suggests otherwise,” he added.

At the same time, Manyasa said the survey showed fees and the cost of uniform continue to hamper the quest for education for children.

“At least 59.1 per cent of the students were reported to miss school due to fees challenge,” the report.

Nationally, the survey established that 42 per cent of students receive between Sh3,001 and Sh5,000 in bursaries or scholarships from different arms of government while 38.3 per cent receive less than Sh3,000.

Another 13.9 per cent receive between Sh5,001 and Sh10,000 in while only 4.5 per cent receive between Sh10,001 and Sh20,000. Only 0.9 per cent of students receive more than Sh30,000 in bursaries or scholarships.

Average price

Similarly, the survey showed  majority of bursaries or scholarships beneficiaries in Sub-County Schools (51.4 per cent), Extra County Schools at 40.9 per cent, National at 38.6 per cent and 58.4 per cent in private receive less than Sh3,000.

Survey further revealed that the average price of a set of school uniforms in 43.6 per cent of the schools is more than Sh5,000, making it a major financial burden to parents.

He said action taken by respective heads also differed based on the school category with Sub-County and County school students bearing the brunt as they are sent home. “On average, 35 per cent of the schools allow students without uniform to attend class while 14.7 per cent send them away from school. Some 76.3 per cent of special schools allow students without uniform to attend class while only 17.7 per cent of national schools allow students without uniform to attend class,” the report shows.

It also shows that on average, only 20 per cent of sub-county schools are equipped with Biology, Physics and Chemistry laboratories compared to 90 percent of national schools, with the latter enjoying better subject-specific and multipurpose laboratories with Sub-County schools having to improvise to get anywhere close to an operational laboratory.

Manyasa said gender disparity continues to bedevil school management from primary to secondary level, with the survey showing that women are under-represented in leadership.

The survey had a sample of 1,317 public and private schools spread across all counties, interviewed 1,317 principals reaching 59,201 children between June and July last year.