Tracing Pupils in Kenya’s Primary Schools: A Case Study of the Impact of the 2003 Free Primary Education Policy in Eight Schools in Kisii and Kajiado Districts

Abstract

In this report, the primary focus is to assess the impact of Free Primary Education (FPE) on cohort intake and progression patterns as well as the pattern that emerge of factors that lead to exclusion such as repetition, transfers, age profile, and household characteristics at the school level. The report is based on evidence gathered during field research undertaken in two districts in Kenya during the months of July and August 2007 and a subsequent follow up in the months of July and September 2008. It was motivated in part by a review of the literature on policies on free primary education in East Africa (Oketch and Rolleston, 2007) and of earlier studies which reported that increased enrollment following the implementation of FPE in Kenya in 2003 was immediately followed by high drop-out rate which in turn adversely affected the flow of pupils in the second year of the policy in 2004. The report is organised into 2 parts. Part 1 focuses on intake and progression patterns at the school level in Kisii and Kajiado district following the implementation of FPE. Under this part, section 1 assesses the impact of FPE on cohort intake and progression patterns in Kisii district. Section 2 assesses cohort intake and progression patterns in Kajiado district. Section 3 provides the conclusion. Part 2 focuses on cohort repetition, transfers, age profiles and household characteristics patterns of the pre-FPE and FPE cohorts in each of the schools selected in the two districts