Impact of free primary education policy on repetition rates in public primary schools in Kenya: a case study of emuhaya sub county

In Kenya, the Government reintroduced Free Primary Education in 2003 to enhance access, retention, participation, progression and completion. In 2002 repetition rates were 9.8%, 8.0%, 10.8% and 8.4% respectively. In Emuhaya dropout rates were high before introduction of Free Primary Education policy and even after introduction of Free Primary Education policy repetition still persisted. The objective of this study was to establish the impact of Free Primary Education policy on repetition rate in public primary schools in Kenya. The study established that there was a strong negative relationship between Free Primary Education policy and repetition rates with Pearson’s r correlation coefficient of -0.832 which was significant at p value of 0.05. It accounted for 68.7% variation in repetition rates. This means that increase in free primary education funding reduced repetition rate by 68.7%. The study concluded that Free Primary Education policy had reduced repetition rates of public primary schools in Emuhaya Sub County. The study recommended that Free Primary Education fund be disbursed on time to schools. The findings of this study are useful to stakeholders in education as it informs them on the need to assess implementation of Free Primary Education so as to achieve its objectives fully.