James Onyango, 17, a Form Four student at Jamhuri High School, Nairobi, walks to school every day just like many of his 860 colleagues attending the institution.

From last month, all he needs to be in school is his uniform, activity fees while the rest will be catered for by the Government, thanks to the Sh10 billion injected a fortnight ago to subsidise secondary education in Kenya.

Jamhuri High School, just two kilometres from the City Centre, is a typical day secondary school in Kenya. With 24 classes, six laboratories and 60 teachers, the resources are deemed enough to cater for the number of students currently enrolled at the school.

But Onyango says looking at statistics in the past years only a few students from the school qualify to join universities, a thing that has dashed his hopes of pursuing a Medicine degree.

"Most of them got poor grades though they were the best performers at primary level," he says.

Jamhuri High was the venue where President Kibaki officially unveiled the financing plan, a programme which has come under sharp criticism over its faltering efforts at reducing the school fees burden on parents. In the sprawling Dandora, Kibera and Mathare slums, which are dotted by dozens of day secondary schools, the story is worse.

A spot-check by the Business Daily in these areas indicate most of the schools lack text books, laboratories and the structures are not conducive for learning as they lack floors, windows and basic amenities.

The situation is the same for schools in rural areas where locals believe taking their children to a day secondary school is a sure bet they would fail in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE) exams due to restricted resources that are available in urban schools.

These schools are hardly among the best in the national ratings during past KCSE results. Overhearing senior education officials chat about the State of Kenyan secondary schools and the cost of education during the launch, they could not hide their amazement.

"Something needs to be done about these schools and the quality of education to justify the costs parents are bearing, "said Prof Sam Ongeri, the Education minister to senior staff at the Ministry of Education.

According to the Jamhuri High School principal, William Wainaina, an additional 100 Form One students are expected to join the institution by the end of this week.

He is, however, worried that the facilities could be strained given the projected increase of enrolment in the coming years following the new plan, if the Government does not invest more into additional infrastructure.

"Day schools are no doubt the next in-thing as they are cheaper for the average Kenyan household, " said Mr Wainaina. Education analysts say the reason behind poor performance in day schools is general neglect, strained facilities and a perception among Kenyans that boarding schools are better, which have meant compromised quality of education.

Yet Kenya's education system is on the brink of undergoing a key shift that could see day-schooling for high school students eventually being the preferred option to cope with the rising enrolment levels and ensure cheap access.

Recent developments in the Ministry of Education point towards this model with the strongest indication yet being the decision by the Government to waive all fees for students based on current day schools charges.

In the subsidised secondary education plan rolled out last month , the Government is to take up Sh10,265 per student annually, in a move that will benefit day scholars more than those in boarding schools as they will only cater for uniforms and activity fees.

However, those in boarding schools will cough a maximum of Sh18,265 to cater for boarding fees annually. The decision to subsidise fees to parents means they will be free to spend at least Sh10 billion in one year-which accounts for 49 per cent of household spending item that contributes to poverty.

And, two weeks ago, President Kibaki outlined an ambitious plan favouring the day-schooling model.

During the launch of the plan, the President said the Government will introduce a day-wing in boarding schools as well as open more day secondary schools in high population density and arid and semi-arid areas.

Education Permanent Secretary Karega Mutahi

Analysts are in agreement that a move towards day secondary schooling, would be the single strongest initiative yet aimed at raising the standards of living for most of the of the country's poor households while ensuring access to secondary education.

This, they say could raise the national consumption levels, meaning a major drop in the incidence of absolute poverty and at the same time deal with the problem of enrolment.Faced with rising secondary school enrolment rates and a looming pupils' spill over from the free primary education programme in three years, focus has now shifted on increasing access to secondary education.

Current enrolment stands at 1.4 million, after an additional 400,000 form one students joined secondary schools this year. The number has been sharply rising. In 2003, it stood at 882,390 while in 2007, 395, 000 students joined form one compared to 251, 822 in 2003.

An additional one million students are expected to join secondary schools by 2011, when the first batch of pupils under the 2003 FPE will complete their primary level studies.

Already, the Government has outlined yet another plan aimed at financing a number of day secondary schools to boost their laboratory facilities and classes in a programme that would see ten schools in every district benefit yearly.

Ms Eldah Onsomu, an education policy analyst at the quasi government research outfit- Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA)- says focus should be on improving infrastructure in day schools, as they are more affordable. "But what we should be worried about is the quality of education in those schools as they are set for massive intakes" Ms Onsomu says.

However, even with the expansion plans, Prof Ongeri says education standards would not be compromised as schools would be inspected to ensure they were complying with the set education standards. "We are in the process of recruiting more quality assurance officers to be dispersed to various part of the country to check on standards".

Educationists have in the past criticised the Government for not expanding the 'landing grounds' for the FPE pupils once they clear while anticipating a collapse in the education sector in Kenya where millions of students would not proceed with secondary education thanks to fewer places.

The strategy come hot in the heels when the secondary education system is enjoying recent reforms especially change in curriculum starting last year as well as the slashing of examinable subjects and allowing students to use calculators in KCSE exams, both introduced last year.

And to boost the expansion strategy, starting this year, 142 secondary schools countrywide will be upgraded into centres of excellence, two in each of the more than the current 80 districts in the country.

"The centres will benefit from Government financing to improve their infrastructure while more teachers would be deployed to the institutions," says Education Permanent Secretary Karega Mutahi.