Safety measures in public secondary schools in Kahuro district, Murang' a county, kenya and their effects on school safety
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Date
2014-10-01
Authors
Mwangi, Jane Wanjiku
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to establish the safety measures being implemented in
public secondary schools in Kahuro district, and determine the effects of such measures
on school safety. The objectives of the study were to: identify the safety measures put in
place to help reduce risks in secondary schools in Kahuro district; determine the effects
of safety measures put in place on safety of secondary schools; establish the extent to
which secondary schools in Kahuro district are prepared in the management of any
emergency eventuality related to students' safety while in school; and determine the
constraints secondary schools in Kahuro district face in the implementation of safety
measures and management of emergencies. The study used a descriptive survey design
targeting 36 principals and 7,314 students from all the 36 public secondary schools in
Kahurodistrict. The area District Education Officer and the Quality Assurance Officer
were also targeted. Simple random sampling was used to select 15 out of 36 schools.
Ninety (90) students from the sampled schools were also randomly selected to take part.
Purposive sampling was used to select 15 principals (1 per school), one District
Education Officer and one Quality Assurance Officer, giving a total of 107 participants.
Instruments that were used for data collection included: a questionnaire designed for
principals and another one for students; interview schedules for the DEO and QASO.
Before conducting the actual data collection procedure, a pilot study was conducted in
two schools in the district to pre-test the data collection tools. Qualitative data collected
was coded and entered in the computer for analysis using Statistical Package of Social
Sciences (SPSS) and was analyzed and reported using frequency distributions, means and
percentages. Qualitative data collected was analyzed thematically based on research
objectives. Data was presented by use of frequency tables, pie-charts and bar graphs. The
study established that 86.7% of the schools in Kahuro district were fitted with fire
extinguishers, 60.0% were fitted with windows without grills while another 60.0% of the
schools were fitted with ventilation and lit corridors. However, the study found out that
most of the safety policies had been implemented in schools to a very small extent. For
instance, First Aid kits were not easily accessible to most people, and school community
did not undertake evacuation drills. Mechanisms for co-coordinating various disaster
activities did not exist in the school. The study also found out that none of the sampled
schools had smoke detectors. This clearly concludes that drills and evacuation measures
were not fully implemented in schools. In addition to this, the study established that only
two (13.3%) schools had set aside disaster management funds and another three (20.0%)
schools had the emergency plan. The implementation of safety measures was attributable
to various factors. These includes inadequate funds, lack of skilled personnel to train the
school community on disaster management; poor planning during construction of school
buildings; and lack of disaster management equipments and facilities. The study
recommends that: The government, through Ministry of Education should provide
schools with funds to implement safety policies in schools and improve on the coordination
in safety policy implementation process; emergency drills should be conducted
regularly to enhance disaster preparedness among the students', teachers, principals and
the school community as a whole; school management committee should ensure that they
set aside funds used in supporting of in-service training in disaster management; among
other recommendations.
Description
Master of education in the department of Educational Management, Policy and Curriculum Studies May 2014