Relationship Between Utilisation of Funds from Income-Generating Activities and Delivery of Classroom Teaching Services in Public Secondary Schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

This study examined the relationship between the utilisation of income-generating activity (IGA) funds and the delivery of classroom teaching services in public secondary schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Despite increased government capitation, schools often receive insufficient funding, prompting reliance on IGAs to sustain operations. Guided by the Innovation Theory of Necessity and the Problem-Solving Theory, and grounded in pragmatism, the study adopted a correlational design within a convergent parallel mixed-methods framework. Multi-stage sampling was used to select 80 public secondary schools (40 boarding and 40 day) and 240 respondents comprising 80 headteachers, 80 senior teachers of academics and 80 bursars. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews and analysed using Pearson and Spearman correlations and thematic analysis. Findings revealed that IGA fund utilisation was significantly related to seven of the nine teaching services examined, including textbook acquisition, employment of Board of Management teachers and continuous professional development. However, no significant relationships were established with hiring part-time teachers or financing teacher motivation. Overall, IGA fund utilisation had a strong, positive and statistically significant relationship with classroom teaching service delivery (r = .707, p < .001). The study recommends that the Ministry of Education establish guidelines requiring schools to allocate a minimum proportion of IGA profits towards improving teaching quality and digital integration. Additionally, Boards of Management should incorporate IGA-to-pedagogy objectives into school strategic plans to strengthen the contribution of alternative funding to classroom teaching services.