Influence of teacher adequacy on students’ performance in KCSE in public secondary schools in Kenya. A case of Kathiani sub-county, Machakos County

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 (KCSE) in the last five years. The study sought to establish the influence of teacher adequacy on students’ performance in KCSE in public secondary schools.The objective of the study was; to examine the extent to which teacher adequacy affect students’ performance in KCSE in public secondary schools in Kathiani sub-County Machakos County. The study was guided by education production function theory. The study used descriptive research design. The target population of the study was 30 head teachers and 270 Heads of departments in 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 HODs 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 experts in the school of education while reliability of the instruments was determined using the Cronbach alpha. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation while hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance using correlationanalyses. The findings revealed that KCSE performance in Kathiani Sub County has been declining over the years from mean grade points of 4.2 in 2012 to 3.2 out of 12 points in 2016. Further it found that that teacher inadequacy was occasioned by the fact that there were no immediate replacements made once teachers had transferred from schools. Overall the study found that teacher adequacy had positive and significantrelationships with performance at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. The study recommended that TSC should recruit and post enough teachers as per the curriculum based establishment of schools and they should replace teachers immediately when they are transferred as majority of head teachers decried that many of the teachers who get transferred are not replaced immediately.