Relationship between Donor Funding and School Operations in Public Secondary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper investigated the relationship between donor funding and operations of public secondary schools in Nakuru County. The study was anchored on the Resource-Based Theory and adopted the correlational research design. The target population was 365 public secondary school principals and the same number of bursars in Nakuru County. The accessible population comprised 102 principals and 102 bursars from Bahati, Gilgil and Nakuru Town East sub-counties. A sample of 51 principals and 51 bursars, selected using the census method in National, Extra County and county schools and simple random sampling for the sub-county schools, participated in the study. A bursar's questionnaire and principal's interview guide were used to collect data. The face and content validity of the bursars' questionnaire and principals' interview guide were checked through expert judgement. The reliability of the bursars' questionnaire was estimated using the Cronbach Alpha method. The instrument was reliable as its coefficient was 0.762. Qualitative data were analysed thematically through the inductive method. Hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance using Pearson's Correlation. The financial support by donors was low, as it was rated at 2.34 out of 5. The findings further showed that the relationship between donor funding and school operations was positive but not statistically significant, r(29) = .152, p = .415. The study concluded that financial support by donors does not affect school operations. This finding may assist school managers in coming up with alternative measures that help schools reduce disruptions to their calendars due to financial challenges.