Abstract:
This study investigated the extent of student participation in secondary schools in Kenya. The study was prompted
by the recurrent student unrest in Kenya; often blamed in media and research to unequal decision making
opportunities in schools. Data was col
lected by means of a survey questionnaire distributed among
300
sec
ondary school learners and thirty
teachers. The findings revealed that though there attempts to include views
of students in school policy, such attempts were mainly tokenistic and did not
extend to core management issues.
Students were only allowed to participate in student welfare issues but were deemed to be immature and therefore
unable to
participate neither in
administrative issues such as managing funds and budget nor in curriculum is
sues
such
as teaching
methods or number of exams.
It was thus concluded that student participation in secondary
schools was still wanting and needed to be expanded to include issues beyond student welfare issues.
