ABSTRACT Education being the key to socio-economic development of any nation has prompted the government of Kenya to subsidize secondary school education, as a way of ensuring maximum students‟ participation. However, there is growing concern that this initiative may not be yielding the expected outcome, as is evident from the current relatively low transition and completion rates. Unexpectedly so, the country continues to record surging numbers of school drop outs since the subsidization programme was first rolled out. The study sought to establish the relationship between subsidized school funding and students‟ participation in public secondary schools. Specifically, the study investigated the trends in enrolment rates and subsidized school funding by school category, evaluated the relationship between subsidized school funding and textbook to student ratio, analyzed the association between subsidized school funding and transition rates from public primary to secondary school and assessed the relationship between subsidized school funding and completion rates in public secondary schools in Vihiga County. The study was based on the Von Thunen‟s Production Function Theory, which postulates a linear relationship between educational inputs and outputs. The study was implemented using the descriptive survey research design and targeted the 5 Sub-County Directors of Education, 5175 form three students, 115 principals and 1023 teachers, all drawn from the 115 public secondary schools in the research area. A sample of 518 form three students, 102 teachers, 12 principals and 5 Sub-County Directors of Education was selected by saturated sampling for the directors, simple random sampling for the Principals, then purposive sampling for the students and teachers. Data were collected using questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis guides. Piloting was conducted three weeks to the actual study in 5 secondary schools in the research area, to assess the suitability of these instruments for collecting the required data. Validity of the research instruments was assessed using data from the pilot study, via the Rasch model, while their reliability was assessed at the same stage using the test-retest method. Both measures were found to meet the minimum threshold as stipulated by various educational research experts with respect to the research instruments that were developed by the researcher. Data were analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics thus; frequency counts, means and percentages. Pearson‟s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 alpha level of statistical significance. Findings revealed that there was a steady rise in the average number of students enrolled in form one in boarding schools as compared to those who enrolled in day schools. Moreover, the study established that a significant positive relationship exists between subsidized school funding and completion rates. However, a there was no significant association between subsidized school funding and both student to text book ratio and primary to school transition rates. It was concluded an increase in the funds allocated towards subsidizing secondary school education would significantly improve students‟ participation. It is therefore recommended that the government of Kenya should allocate more funds towards subsidization of secondary education, so as to increase students‟ participation in all Kenyan public secondary schools.
