Administrative challenges facing public day secondary school headteachers in human resource management; Matungulu district, Machakos county-Kenya
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Date
2014-07-24
Authors
Isaac, Theresia Munini
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Abstract
Secondary school education in Kenya has been one of the main concerns of the
Government since independence. Recommendations have been made by education
reports from various education commissions and taskforces, in relation to provision of
sufficient and trained teachers in secondary schools. Besides the supply of teachers,
there have been efforts to retain and motivate them in the teaching profession, with an
aim of providing quality education in secondary schools. The objectives of this study
was to investigate the administrative challenges faced by public day secondary school
head teachers in recruitment ,induction ,training and development of teachers ,to
determine the challenges faced in human resource management ,to examine how the
challenges affect teaching and learning and to examine the strategies adopted by head
teachers to cope with the challenges. The research design for this study was
descriptive survey .The target population was 22 head teachers, 22 deans of
curriculum, and the district education officer, Matungulu district. The samples were
selected using simple random and purposive sampling procedures, where eleven head
teachers, eleven deans of curriculum, and the education officer, Matungulu District,
were included in the sample. The research instruments were questionnaires for the
head teachers and the deans of curriculum and an interview schedule for district
education officer. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while
qualitative data were analyzed thematically. This study was guided by social system
theory by Getzels and Guba. The following were the findings of the study; That all
schools had recruited Board of Management (BoM) teachers .Among the head
teachers,72.73% indicated they had conflict with their BoM on tribe while 64.63%
indicated conflict on teacher qualification during teacher recruitment. On induction,
only 45.45% of the head teachers indicated that teachers were inducted when joining
their schools. The study revealed that there were challenges faced in in-service and
development of teachers. The support staff is reported to be discussing teachers'
affairs with students, having low pay, and passing drugs to students as indicated by
72.73%, 54.55%, and 18.18% of the respondents respectively. Moreover, 81.82% of
the head teachers cited teachers commuting from far, while 72.73% indicated high
teaching workloads among staff as a challenge. The problems encountered by head
teachers led to average staff motivation as indicated by 72.73% of the head teachers,
poor time keeping, poor syllabus coverage and poor academic performance as cited
by 81.83% of head teachers respectively. In their endeavor to cope with the
challenges, 81.82% of the head teachers resulted to regular consultation and holding
weekly briefs with their teachers. It is evident that there is need for the government
through the TSC to adequately staff the schools to ease high teacher workload.
Further, the government and other stakeholders should build staff houses to enable
teachers reside within the schools and ensure adequate financing of schools from
public finances and other sources to enable head teachers sponsor their staff for
refresher courses and workshops.