The treasury has released KES 6.3 billion for Free Primary and Free Day Secondary Education. Approximately 6,075,706 children will benefit from this funds, which have increased the primary education completion rate to over 95% today from 62% in 2002.  Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo had asked for KES 1.77 billion for Free Primary Education. he had also requested for KES 3.94 billion for the Free Day Secondary School Education program, as well as a KES 300 million grant to go to the  the Kenya National Examinations Council for the administration of examinations later this year.

The Free Primary Education, has not only taken the burden of school fees burden away from parents, but has opened up learning opportunities as well for the disadvantaged pupils who had never enrolled in school; or had dropped out because they simply could not afford the costs.

However concerns over the quality of the free primary education (FPE) offered in public schools has seen  more parents prefer to take their children to private schools. This means the class struggle during admissions may linger for a while. The student to teacher ratio rose from 38:1 in 2003 when FPE was introduced to 46:1 in 2009. This means that there are fewer teachers to cater for the growing number of students. The ratio ranges between 15:1 and 30:1 in private schools.