Effectiveness of KESI head teachers in-service programs on management of public secondary schools in Kisii county, Kenya
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Date
2012-04-02
Authors
Odhiambo, Beatrice Akinyi
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Abstract
Kenya Education Staff Institute (KESI) was established in 1981 with the aim of providing in service
training to institutional managers and staff from the Ministry of Education. Despite this training, there
were still numerous cases of mismanagement in most schools as well as poor performance in national
exams. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of KESI head teachers' in-service
programs on management of public secondary schools in Kisii Central District, Kisii County. The
objectives of the study were; to find out the extent to which KESI head teachers' in-service programs
were effective in management of secondary school and also to find out the issues and challenges head
teachers faced in secondary school management and their possible solutions. The research sought to
answer the following four research questions: To what extent was financial management, teacher
management, emerging issues in education and ICT use as KESI programs effective in secondary
school management?, What were the issues and challenges head teachers faced in secondary school
management?, What were some of the solutions to the issues and challenges faced in secondary school
management? What adjustments could be made to KESI programs to make them meet the intended
purposes? .For the purpose of the study, fifteen sample schools were randomly selected from schools
whose head teachers had attended KESI in-service courses. The research employed descriptive survey
design of collecting information by administering questionnaires to a sample of individuals. The main
instrument for data collection was questionnaires. To determine the reliability of the instruments, a
pilot study was conducted in 5 schools randomly selected from public secondary schools in the county
whose head teachers had attended KESI training. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS computer
package of scoring questionnaire responses and presenting the results in frequency distribution tables.
The data was interpreted by making inferences on the basis of the analyzed percentages.
The major findings of the study were; Eighty percent of the head teachers reported that they had
acquired knowledge and skills from KESI training in financial management, teacher management,
emerging issues in education and ICT use in secondary schools and that they had applied the acquired
knowledge and skills in management of their schools. However, level of application of knowledge and
skills was low in some areas such as teacher remuneration, teacher balancing, development of income
generating activities and maintenance of computers. Despite the KESI training, all the head teachers
said they still faced a number of issues and challenges in areas of financial management, teacher
management, ICT use in school and emerging issues in education some of which were beyond KESI.
The major recommendations of this study were: The government of Kenya should continue funding
KESI courses since they are effective in imparting knowledge and skills to head teachers, KESI should
organize courses on teacher remuneration, teacher balancing, developing of income generating
activities and maintenance of computers as they are still problem areas in secondary school
management, the KESIĀ· courses should cover more content to cater for most areas in school
management and ample time should be allocated to KESI courses to ensure in-depth coverage of the
content.
Description
Department of Educational Management Policy and Curriculum Studies, 88p. The LB 2831.976.K4O3 2011
Keywords
School principals --In-service training --Kenya --Kisii, School management and organization --Kenya --Kisii