Influence of Selected Prefects’ Leadership Characteristics on Learners’ Academic Achievement in Public Secondary Institutions in Kwale County, Kenya

Abstract

The leadership traits of prefects in public secondary schools, is an essential concept that is capable of influencing a positive effect in academic achievement of the institutions as well as influencing the general growth of the institutions and the learners. The research focused on establishing the influence of prefects’ leadership characteristics on learners’ academic achievement in secondary institutions in Matuga Sub County, Kwale County Kenya. The specific objectives of this research were; to establish the extent to which prefects’ experience influence learners’ academic achievement; to establish the extent to which prefects’ class level influence learners’ academic achievement and to find out the extent to which prefects’ academic performance influence learners’ academic achievement in public secondary institutions in Matuga Sub County, Kwale county, Kenya. The study was anchored on Path-Goal theory and was descriptive in nature. The investigation was completed in public secondary institutions in Matuga. The target population was 628 respondents (composed of 614 prefects and 15 principals). The sample size for the study was 76 respondents comprising of 61 prefects who represented 10% of the target population and 15 principals who were selected by census. Simple random sampling design was employed to select institutions’ officials from each institution in the sub-County. The study used questionnaires and interview guide to enrich data gathering. The questionnaires were pretested in one government secondary institution that was not part of the final study. Face and content validity of the instrument was conducted through an assessment of the items on the research tool by twoexpertsfrom the department of Educational Management, Policy and Curriculum Studies of Kenyatta University who ensured that they were appropriate, meaningful and suitable to the respondents. Test-retest method was used to measure the reliability of the instruments. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS V 26.0. Descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics were employed to analyse data. Descriptive statistics entailed the use of means, standard deviations in addition to frequencies while inferential statistics employed simple regression analysis. The results of the study revealed that the characteristic of the prefects which had the greatest influence on learners’ academic achievement was the prefects’ academic performance at 51 per cent, followed by prefects’ experience at 34 per cent and lastly prefects’ class level at 15 per cent. The study concluded that prefects experience, class level and academic performance positively influenced learners’ academic achievements. The study following are the study recommended that: school management should induct and train prefects before assuming their roles; school management should actively engage prefects and learners in general in their learning activities; and school management should organise regular appraisal sessions with prefects with a view of identifying their weaknesses and remedial measures taken to make them work better.