Murage, James Gate.2025-12-092015-10http://41.89.103.50:4000/handle/123456789/98Many world governments, Kenya included are signatories to the United Nations declaration on the need to achieve Universal Primary Education. To achieve this goal, the Government of Kenya (GoK) embarked on provision of Free Primary Education in 2003. However, this noble undertaking has encountered numerous setbacks, most serious being lack of adequate teaching/learning resources, a factor that has undermined the achievement of the recommended textbook-pupil ratio of 1:3 in lower primary and 1:2 in upper primary in the country’s primary education cycle. Some of the factors that have been associated with the aforementioned challenges of textbook-pupil ratio include delays during textbook procurement process, lack of quality storage facilities, poor stock control, wastage, and theft. However, the extent to which these challenges could be at play in primary schools in Rumuruti Division has so far not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to find out the extent to which selected textbook management challenges were affecting the attainment of the recommended textbook-pupil ratio in Rumuruti division. These findings, it was envisaged would offer useful information to Ministry of Education (MOE), School management Committee (SMC), parents, teachers and pupils on potential intervention strategies that need to be initiated to address textbook management challenges. Using ex-post facto research design, data was collected from primary school headteachers in Rumuruti division by use of self-delivered questionnaire and subsequently analyzed using frequencies and percentages with respect to nominal scale data and chi-square with regard to hypotheses that were germane to this study. The instrument reliability level was estimated through crobach’s alpha in which the alpha obtained was .8 which implied that the instrument was reliable. Although the focused challenges had no statistically significant effect (p>.05) on textbook-pupil ratio, the headteachers indicated that the challenges were undermining their schools’ effort to enhance pupils’ learning. The study recommends the need for the MOE to release FPE funds early enough to avoid delays in procurement process by the School Instructional Materials Selection Committee (SIMSC) and that adequate storage facilities should be constructed to safeguard against loss of textbooks. Furthermore there is need to install Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras as a safeguard measure against pilferage of textbooks.enThesis