Factors influencing management of students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Kitui central sub-county, Kitui county, Kenya

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that influence management of students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Kitui Central Sub-county, Kitui County. Kenya. The objectives of the study were to; to establish the influence of student personality on management of students’ discipline in public secondary schools, to establish the influence of school related factors on management of students’ discipline in public secondary schools, to determine the influence of home background on management of students discipline in public secondary schools in Kitui Central sub-county, Kitui County. The research design adopted by this study was descriptive survey design. The target population involved was 12,264 respondents comprising of 31 principals, 233 teachers, 12,000 students from 31 selected public secondary schools in the County. Census sampling was used to select a sample of 31 principals while simple random sampling was used to select 30 percent of teachers and 10 percent of students making a sample of 70 teachers and 1,200 students. The questionnaires were used as the main research instruments. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Qualitative data were analyzed by organizing data into themes, to identify the patterns and connectivity among the identified variables. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20) was used to analyze quantitative data and findings were presented using tables and percentages. ANOVA was used to test the null hypotheses at α = 0.05. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the impact of each of the independent variable on management of students’ discipline. The findings of the study were; that the students personality contributes to discipline among students in public secondary schools significantly since the ANOVA results shows that F(1,219) = 503.177 and the P-value = 0.082. Also there was no significant difference between mean responses of principals, teachers and students on the influence of students’ personality on discipline F (1,219) = 166.899 and the P-value = 0.0771). The home background factors also influence management of discipline among students in public secondary schools as shown by ANOVA results F(1,219) = 166.899 and the P-value = 0.0771).