Influence of School Management Practices on Students’ Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination in Kirinyaga County, Kenya
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Date
2019
Authors
Njangi, P Muiruri
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Studies globally have attempted to examine the influence of managerial practices of
principals on academic performance of the students. However, no published studies
have been done to establish the influence of principals’ management practices on
students’ academic outcome in secondary schools in Kirinyaga East Sub-County,
Kirinyaga County, Kenya. The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of
principals’ school management practices on students’ academic performance in
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in Kirinyaga East Sub-County,
Kirinyaga County. The objectives of this study were to: find out the influence of
school leadership on students’ performance in KCSE; establish the influence of
monitoring on students’ performance in KCSE; find out the influence of personnel
management of students’ performance and to establish the influence of target setting
on students’ performance. The study was based on contingency theory. The study
adopted a descriptive research design. The study target population was 432
comprising of school principals, heads of departments, boards of management
chairpersons, parent teachers association chairpersons and student council
chairpersons all drawn from 36 secondary schools. The respondents were grouped
into strata and simple random sampling technique used to select a sample of 207
subjects. Data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed with the aid of
Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20. The overall response from all the
respondents was 73.91%. The study established that the principals practised more
than one leadership style with the most preferred being instructional and
transformational leadership. Further, 78.4% of the participants strongly held that
principals’ leadership influenced students’ academic performance. It was also
established that monitoring had great influence on student academic performance
given a mean of 4.36 (SD = 0.61). Further, the study established that 67.3% of the
respondents were skeptical on whether motivation influenced students’ academic
performance. In addition, with overall mean of 4.61 (SD = 0.49), it was revealed that
target setting had influence on students’ academic performance. The study concludes
that the principals adopted contingency measures in their leadership styles. The study
also concludes that leadership, target setting and monitoring have a high influence on
students’ academic performance. The study recommends that Teachers Service
Commission should recruit adequate teachers in public secondary schools so that the
principals may focus on school management as opposed to being in classes most of
the time. The study also recommends that the political leaders should work
harmoniously with school management for the benefit of the students and schools.
The study further recommends that the principals should continue exercising
instructional and transformational leadership styles in their schools.
Description
A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
for the Award of Masters of Education Degree in the
School of Education, Department of Educational
Management, Policy and Curriculum Studies in of
Kenyatta University
Keywords
School Management Practices, Secondary Education Examination, Kirinyaga County, Kenya