Abstract:
Learners’ academic performance is an area of great concern to all stakeholders in education worldwide. Schools in
Kathiani Sub-County have recorded dismal performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in the last five
years. The study sought to establish the extent to which head teachers’ supervisory role affect students’ performance in
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in public secondary schools in Kathiani Sub-County and propose
intervention strategies that can be adopted to improve students’ performance. The hypothesis of the study was stated as
follows: There is no significant relationship between the head teacher’s supervisory role and student’s performance at
Kenya certificate of secondary education. The study used descriptive research design. The target population of the study
was 30 head teachers and 270 Heads of departments in all 30 public secondary schools in Kathiani Sub County,
Machakos County. The study used Simple random, stratified and purposive random sampling techniques in selecting a
sample size of 9 head teachers and 81 heads of departments from the target population. Questionnaires were used to
collect data from the head teachers and heads of department. Validity of the questionnaires was ascertained using
researchers while the reliability of the instruments was determined using the Cronbach alpha. Quantitative data was
analyzed using percentages and means while hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance using correlation
analysis. The study found that even though head teachers often carried out their supervisory roles, vetting of teacher’s
lesson notes (mean = 2.63) and appraising of teachers (mean 2.72) were rarely done. The study recommends the need for
head teachers to intensify teacher performance appraisal in order to give regular feedbacks to teachers.
