Financing secondary education is a great challenge to both government and households. In Kenya, whereas
households meet a negligible cost to cater for Free Primary Education, it is not clearly established how much they
pay for Free Secondary Education. Thus cost is a key barrier to transition to secondary school especially for the
poor. The objective of the study was to establish the effect of the hidden costs on students’ completion rates in
public boarding schools in Kisii County. This study was based on Classical Liberal Theory of Equal opportunities
advanced by Sherman and Wood (1982) which expresses the view that each child possesses inborn talents which
accelerate them to social promotion hence all systems should be designed without any barriers. The study used
correlational research design. The target population was 60 head teachers from 60 public boarding secondary
schools in Kisii County, 641 class teachers and 240 PTA class representatives. Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970)
scientific statistical table, stratified and simple random sampling was used to select the required sample for the study
of 52 head teachers, 234 class teachers and 148 PTA representatives. Questionnaires and interview schedules were
used to collect data. The data was then analyzed by use of regression analysis. Pearson’s correlation was used to
measure the degree of the relationship. Statistical tests were done at α=0.05. It was found that a significant positive
relationship exited between hidden costs and students’ transition and completion rates. It was recommended that
since the established hidden costs negatively affect access, the Government of Kenya should increase FSE
budgetary allocation to schools to ease parents’ burden. Significantly, the study findings would enable education
policy-makers and other stakeholders to cope with strategies for easing parents’ cost-burden and ways of mobilizing
FSE funds.