dc.description.abstract | At independence and the period preceding independence Public Boarding Secondary Schools were preferred and viewed as ideal for quality education. However, in the 1970s, the government started shifting responsibility of schools expansion and maintenance to parents and local communities. The schools found themselves unable to maintain some facilities which had been in use with government grants. Recent government policies, for example fees guidelines and health and safety standards in educational institutions and procurement procedures have been difficult to implement. FPE also required that secondary schools admit more students.
The purpose of the study was to investigate the constraints facing the implementation of government policies in public boarding secondary schools in Murang'a District. The specific objectives of the study was to identify the major constraints facing the implementation of government policies in Public Boarding Secondary Schools and come up with mechanisms on how to revitalise the management of Public Boarding Secondary Schools.
The descriptive survey design was used in the study. The study targeted forty-six Public Boarding Secondary Schools in Murang'a District. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the study sample. Eleven out of the 46 schools were selected using the criteria and type of school and status i.e. boys -boarding, Girls -boarding, Mixed- boarding and mixed boarding and day respectively. This yielded three Girls boarding, two boys- boarding, two mixed- boarding and four mixed- day and boarding schools. The simple random technique was used to select the schools in each category.
The respondents were purposively selected. The said group were assumed to be involved in implementation of the government policies. The DEO, Head teachers, BOG members, Head of departments counselling, boarding and discipline were respondents. There were a total of 89 respondents.
The DEO's interview schedule, the head teachers' interview schedule, teachers questionnaires, Focus Group Discussion schedule for BOG members, as well as observation schedule were used as instruments of data collection. The instruments were piloted in two schools not included in the study sample. The test re-test technique was used to estimate the degree of reliability and validity of the instruments of data collection. The reliability of measurement concerns the degree to which a particular measuring instrument give similar results over a number of repeated trials. Validity refers to the degree to which the empirical measure or several measures of the concept accurately measure the concept. The researcher personally collected data from the field. The data was analysed by use of basic descriptive statistics using frequencies, percentiles, median, means and modes presented using tables, charts the strategies to tackle the constraints. | en_US |