Since the introduction of the 8.4.4 system of education in Kenya in 1981, the use of private
supplementary tuition in schools (remedial classes or extra classes) and outside the schools
premises (in holiday tuition centres) has kept on increasing in form, magnitude and intensity.
The government of Kenya through the ministry of education and teachers service commission
has tried severally to discourage the use of private supplementary tuition in schools without
much success. The inability of the Kenyan government and other governments globally to
completely stop the use of PST by students and their parents raises pertinent questions that
deserve attention from policy makers, researchers and stakeholders in education. Some of
these questions include; what are the factors behind the unquenched need for PST? What are
the implications of using PST? Which subjects are popular in PST and why? Why has the
government ban policy not been effective? Is it possible to formulate a national policy
framework that would let PST be, but be regulated to eliminate abuse? To answer some of
these questions and to understand the state of PST in Kenya some studies have been carried
out, however such studies have majorly relied on data that has been collected from the
primary school level and not much has been done using data from the secondary school level.
The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate the factors influencing the need for PST
among secondary school students, investigate the level of success of the ban policy in
stopping the use of PST in schools and based on the outcome of the study propose a policy
framework to replace the ban policy if found to be ineffective using mathematics as the focus
subject in Borabu District of Nyamira County, Kenya. The study employed a descriptive
survey research design. The target population was the secondary school students and
mathematics teachers in the 23 registered secondary schools in the district. Proportional
stratified sampling followed by simple random sampling was employed in selecting the final
sample for the study. Questionnaires were used as instruments for data collection from the
respondents. Validity of the instruments was done through experts in research and piloting.
Reliability was tested by subjecting the instruments to a pilot study. Data analysis was done
using descriptive statistics after data cleaning and coding. Quantitative data was then
analyzed using frequency counts, averages and percentages .The findings of this study should
stimulate continuous debate on the various facets of PST and also provide valuable insights
that the government, stakeholders, scholars and researchers can rely on in their collective
endeavour in addressing the “shadow” education system rationally with the sole purpose of
coming up with a more sensitive and acceptable policy framework that would let all students
in secondary schools benefit fully from PST irrespective of their social, economic and
academic stature.