Influence of Principals’ Administrative Tasks on Learners’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Nyandarua County, Kenya

Abstract

Education has remained at the center of our nation’s development thus academic performance has attracted the interest of many stakeholders. Secondary education is a great determinant for provision of quality human capital required for wealth creation. Hence, principals who are key administrators of secondary education play a critical role in ensuring schools produce qualified and active persons useful for the required workforce. Most counties in Kenya have recorded low academic performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Nyandarua County has in the past registered low academic performance with 77% and 86% of candidates obtaining below grade C in 2017 and 2018 respectively. It is for this reason this research endeavored to assess how principals’ administrative tasks impact on student’s academic performance. Specifically, this study determined the influence of inclusive decision making and teacher performance appraisal on learners’ academic performance, and; established how parents involved in student mentorship influence academic accomplishments in public secondary schools in Nyandarua County. The study used Systems Theory by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy (1972). This research used correlation research design. The target population comprised of 166 principals and 1622 teachers and parents from public secondary schools in Nyandarua County. Stratified sampling was used to sample 162 teachers at 10% and 50 principals at 30% for the study, while 20 parents were purposively sampled as a benchmark to participate in the study. Two schools from Nyandarua County, which were not part of the main study were used in the pilot study. Content validity by use of expert judgment drawn from educational administration was utilized. The researcher conducted an internal reliability on the tools and tested it using Cronbach Alpha where a coefficient of 0.7 and above was accepted. The researcher used questionnaires and interviews to collected data from teachers and principals respectively. Quantitative data was analyzed using both descriptive statistics, in particular, measures of central tendency and dispersion and inferential statistics; in particular, Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used. Qualitative data obtained from open ended questions and interviews was organized by content and discussed within quantitative results. Results were presented using tables, graphs and pie charts. Outcome from the study assisted in establishing best administrative tasks by principals for improving academic performance in public secondary schools.