Principals’ management practices and Kenya certificate of secondary education performance in public secondary schools in Mbooni west sub county, Makueni County

Abstract

Learners Performance in examinations in Public secondary schools in Kenya has been a great concern for educational managers and teachers. Students’ academic performance focus on testing, curriculum reform, teacher quality and principals’ management practices. Performance in national examination has been a challenge in Mbooni west Sub County. Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE) performance in the Mbooni West Sub county Kenya has consistently declined between 2016 and 2019 creating the need for an enquiry and hence the need for this study. The study investigated the influence of Principals’ management practices on students’ KCSE performance in public secondary schools in Mbooni West Sub County, Makueni County. The specific objectives of the study were to; determine the influence of Principals’ involvement in curriculum supervision, Principals’ communication strategies, Principals’ involvement in provision of learning and teaching resources and Principals’ support of teacher capacity development programmes on students’ KCSE performance in secondary schools in Mbooni West Sub County, Makueni County. The hypothesis for the study were; there is no statistically significant relationship between principals’ involvement in supervision of curriculum, principals’ communication strategies, principals involvement in provision of teaching and learning resources and principals’ support for teacher capacity development programmes and students’ KCSE performance in public secondary schools in Mbooni West Sub County, Makueni County. The study employed descriptive survey research design. The target population was all principals and teachers of public secondary schools in Mbooni West Sub county. The study employed stratified sampling technique and random sampling for teachers and census sampling for principals to select 92 teachers and 46 principals. Data was collected using questionnaires. Content validity of the research instruments was ascertained by a team of experts from South Eastern Kenya University and through piloting of the test items while reliability of the questionnaires was ascertained by a test-re-test technique where a coefficient of stability of 0.75 was obtained using the Pearson’s product moment formula. Data was analyzed using SPSS and presented in frequency distribution tables, charts, bar graphs, percentages and figures. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the relationship between principals’ management practices and students KCSE performance in public secondary schools in Mbooni West Sub County, Makueni County. The study established that there was statistically significant relationship between principals’ involvement in supervision of curriculum, principals’ communication strategies, principals’ involvement in provision of teaching and learning resources and principals’ support for teacher capacity development programmes and students’ KCSE performance in public secondary schools in Mbooni West Sub County, Makueni County at (r) values of 0.721,0.711,0.834 and 0.699 respectively while (p) values were 0.003,0.05,0.002 and 0.05 respectively. The study concluded that Principals’ management practices influenced students KCSE performance in public secondary schools in Mbooni West Sub County, Makueni County. The study recommends that principals develop ways of building teachers’ effectiveness, such as establishing short term training programs or organizing learning opportunities that can raise teachers’ competence in their pedagogical practices and also that principals should supervise teachers to ensure that there is quality and effective teaching.