Sila, Muia Martin2016-04-062016-04-062015-10http://erepository.mku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/2899The main research question addressed in this paper is to assess whether theories in the education literature on enrollment, absenteeism and drop out in developing countries are consistent with district-level data in Kenya. One of the central issues that emerge is poverty, as it impacts both the supply and demand side of education, and is discussed as both a cause and consequence of lack of education. This project seeks to explore to what extent poverty is correlated with enrollment rates, attendance, dropouts, educational attainment, and literacy rates in district- level data in Kenya, also considering the impact of gender. The specific objectives will be; to investigate the impact of poverty on both the supply of education and demand for education, to determine home based factors that cause the students to drop out from school, to determine the influence of education costs on students' academic performance in Embu North District secondary schools. As a result a sample of 169 students will be selected from a population of 755. This was be 22% of the total population. Moreover simple random sampling will be used to select the students which formed the sample. This gave all of them equal chances of being selected. The findings in this paper suggest that: Kenya's focus on access and Free Primary Education is well founded, promoting female education can be a means of alleviating poverty, and feeding programs and adult education may be successful ways to promote demand.enilliteracy eradicationProject