Assessment of Equality of Educational Opportunity Based on Adequacy of Selected School Physical Resources in Public Secondary Schools in Central Region, Kenya

The study focused on determining the equality of educational opportunity based on the distribution of selected school physical resources and its association with academic performance in public secondary schools within the Central region in Kenya. The generally low and widely varied academic performance between schools raised the study question of what was the status of physical resources adequacy and whether the distribution of the physical resources assured the equality of education principle. The study was anchored on General systems theory and Ex-post facto research design. Mainly, quantitative data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Kruskal Wallis H-test and Man Whitney U-test). Findings of the study indicated that the adequacy of most physical resources was wanting and distribution was uneven. The relationship between physical resources adequacy and academic performance was positive and significant for most of the resources, implying that performing schools were better resourced in a biased way that violated Equality of educational opportunity principle. The study recommended, among others that government to not only prioritizes resourcing of all public secondary schools in the study locale with essential physical resources that meet learners’ educational needs but also ensure that available resources are distributed fairly across all public schools of the same level. Vigilance and frequent school inspection by quality assurance and standards officers to ensure compliance can be instrumental in this endeavor. Future studies can focus on other differentiated school practices and processes that may adversely impact on equality of education opportunity of learners in public or private secondary schools.