Abstract:
Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE) in public secondary schools in
Makueni County, Kenya has consistently been on the decline over years. Studies have not identified any
particular cause to this trend. Principals’ being heads of academic issues in the schools have a responsibility to
correct this trend through among other ways, promotion of staff professional development in their respective
schools. This down trend in KCSE performance created the need for this study. The purpose of this study was to
investigate the influence of principals’ promotion of staff professional development on KCSE performance in
public secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. The hypothesis for the study was that there is no
statistically significant relationship between principals’ promotion of staff professional development and KCSE
performance in public secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. The study employed mixed methods
research design. The target population was all principals and teachers of public secondary schools in Makueni
County. The study employed stratified sampling technique for schools, equal allocation sampling technique for
both principals and teachers for quantitative phase while maximal variation sampling was used for qualitative
phase. Means, percentage and frequencies were used to determine the distribution of variables under study
among the respondents and presented in frequency tables. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the
relationship between principals’ promotion of staff professional development and KCSE performance in public
secondary schools in Makueni County. The results for quantitative phase indicated that the coefficient of
correlation (r) for the objective was 0.64 at significance level of 0.03.Principals interviewed attested that they
promoted and encouraged staff professional development in their schools. The study concluded that principals
of public secondary schools in Makueni County, Kenya embraced a variety of staff professional development
strategies that positively influenced KCSE performance. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education
and Teachers Service Commission to come up with formal and fully funded teacher-capacity –building
programmes to equip teachers with new skills, methodologies and pedagogical skills since education is
dynamic.
