Challenges faced by headteachers in the management of district day secondary schools in Thika district, Kenya

Abstract

Education has been on an ever-increasing demand prior to and after Kenya attained independence in 1963. Immediately after independence, the need for education was viewed as an economic concern and thus given priority. The total public expenditure on education surpassed expenditure in other sectors of the economy by the 1990's. It eventually became very difficult for the government to sustain the rising costs of education.

As early as the mid 1970s, the government began shifting the responsibility of school expansion on the parents as it became increasingly hard to sustain the already existing schools or even to open new ones. Yet, the growth in population called for great expansion of secondary education. To assuage the hunger for education, communities have taken initiative to start their own schools. Most of the community-initiated schools have been day institutions. This is in line with the recommendation of various Commissions of Inquiry on Education and National Development Plans, that expansion of day schools is more tenable than boarding ones. Up to the 1980s, these schools were referred to as Harambee or unaided schools. The government gave partial aid to some of these schools and eventually took them all up.

Unfortunately, due to lack of facilities, inadequate staffing and admission of low performers, day schools have had a poor reputation. This poor reputation affects both students and teachers in such institutions. Since the success of any given institution depends on effective management, the need for efficient administration of these schools as the key to achieving their set goals is therefore imperative.

This study sought to identify some of the issues and challenges faced by principals of public day secondary schools in managing their institutions. The purpose was to shed light on what happens on the ground in a bid to seek avenues for improvement of such schools.

This study was based on the Public 70-Day Secondary Schools in Thika District. From the Public 70-Day secondary schools in the District, 18 schools were randomly selected for the study. The stratified random sampling technique was applied to select the study sample.

The Headtechers' Questionnaire, the Students' Questionnaire (Form II) as well as Observation Schedules were used as instruments of data collection. The researcher personally collected data from the field. The data was thereafter analysed by use of basic descriptive statistics