Effectiveness of board of governors in addressing teacher shortages in public secondary schools in Kilungu district Makueni county,Kenya
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Date
2013-02-21
Authors
Kumaka, Johnstone Kyalo
Journal Title
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Abstract
Theboards of governors (B.O.G) are legally mandated by the ministry of education under
theeducation act Cap 211 to manage secondary schools in Kenya. Their immediate roles
havenot been defined in the laws and there are no standards that have been adopted to
measuretheir effectiveness. This study has been necessitated by limited literature on the
roleof boards of governors in addressing teacher shortages in public secondary schools in
Kenya.There has been public hue and cry for long due to continued poor performance in
KCSEexaminations in many schools hence high wastage rate due to costly investment
entailed in financing secondary education. Examination results in Kenya are very
importantbecause th€y",'determine the future destiny of students. Thus, education system
in Kenya is examination grade oriented and is affected by the number of qualified
teachershandling the students. This study was intended to investigate the effectiveness of
boardof governors in addressing teacher shortage in public secondary schools. The study
was conducted in Kilungu district. The specific objectives formulated for the study
include:to determine the extend of teacher shortage in the district, to establish whether
B.O.G members' level of education has effect in tackling the problem of teacher
shortage,to determine' whether B.O.G members occupation has influence in posting of
teachersto schools by the T.S.c. and to determine the effect of B.O.G members personal
characteristics in posting of teachers to school by the T.S.C. Five research questions
based on objectives were formulated to guide in the study. The review of literature
focusedon the literature related to teacher recruitment, shortage and placement. This
entails education before independence, teacher recruitment, legal framework of the
B.O.G, decentralization of governance in education. However, this study is hoped to
generate new knowledge that widens horizons of existing knowledge concerning the
boardof governors that could help -tJiem improve their managerial abilities that facilitate
results based informed decision in relation to addressing the problem of teacher
shortages. The study employed survey design. Twelve schools out of twenty public
secondaryschools in the district were purposively sampled for the study. Sixty teachers
(five from each school) and thirty six members of the B.O.G (three from each school)
were randomly selected and requested by the researcher to respond to relevant
questionnaire items. Twelve head teachers from the sampled schools also participated in
the study. The sample size consisted 108 respondents. Data were collected by means of
questionnaires and interview schedules which were administered by the researcher. The
data collected were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).
Statisticalanalysis was used to analyse closed ended items and descriptive statistics open
endeditems. Findings were presented in frequency percentage tables and bar graphs. The
studyfound that level of education of members of B.O.G affected their effectiveness in
exercisingtheir mandate to address the problem of teacher shortage and B.O.G members
supported the schools to have adequate number of teachers. The findings also revealed
that there is no clear government policy on training of B.O.G members. The study
recommended that members of B.O.G should have set educational standard before being
appointed into schools board and there is need to incorporate some moral issues in the
T.S.Cguidelines which will cater for issues of nepotism, favoritism and tribalism.
Description
Educational Management Policy and Curriculum Studies,2008. LB 2831 .K82