Abstract:
Education plays a crucial role in transforming lives and building better futures for individuals and their
communities worldwide. The purpose of the study was to assess the role of teacher motivation in determining
academic performance of secondary school learners in Kenya. The paper is an extract of a study conducted in
public secondary schools in Katulani Sub-County, Kenya. Robert House’s Path-goal Theory of Leadership guided
the study and descriptive survey research design was utilized. The sample size comprised 18 principals selected
purposively and 73 teachers chosen using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Questionnaires were
used to gather data from principals and teachers. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics
done with the assistance of SPSS. The findings revealed a strong positive relationship between teacher motivation
and learners' academic performance. The study concluded that motivating teachers is vital in projecting learner’s
performance in all schools since motivated teachers increase their efforts in assisting students to improve their
academic performance. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education should include a motivation fee in
fees guidelines which principals could use to solicit money from parents for awarding monetary and material
incentives to well-performing teachers. Further, the principals should request for more teachers from the
Teachers’ Service Commission to ensure manageable workload for teachers. Moreover, the Ministry of Education
should enact policies on teacher professional development to ensure that all teachers attend professional
development courses to acquaint themselves with skills for adding value to the learners’ academic performance.
