Influence of school management practices on students’ performance in Kenya Certificate Of Secondary Education in Voi Sub-County, Taita – Taveta County, Kenya

Abstract

The impact of school administration on academic achievement cannot be overstated. Rational school management strategies have shown to help students achieve their learning out comes while also improving their grades. However, the Voi Sub-County's KCSE results have been consistently poor for the past five years, from 2015 to 2019, raising concerns among education stakeholders about school management methods. The goal of this study was to see how school administration affected students' KCSE results in Voi Sub-County, Kenya. The following objectives guided the research: to determine the impact of schools' provision of teaching staff on KCSE performance in secondary schools in Voi Sub-County; to investigate the impact of schools' provision of instructional resources on KCSE performance in secondary schools in Voi SubCounty; and to investigate the impact of schools' provision of school facilities on KCSE performance in secondary schools in Voi Sub-County. The Systems Theory led this research. A descriptive survey research design was used in this study. The survey addressed 332 teachers and 25 principals from Voi Sub-County's secondary schools. All of the principals in the sampled schools were purposefully chosen, while 100 teachers were chosen via stratified random sampling. Two sets of instruments were used to collect data for this study: a teachers' questionnaire and a principal's interview schedule. The Cronbach coefficient alpha was used to determine there liability of the research instruments, while the validity was determined by expert opinion and conformance to the study objectives' indicators. Quantitative data analysis included both descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Person correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to test the study hypothesis. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used for the analysis. Frequency tables, percentages, figures, and narratives were used to present the findings. The study found that the availability of teaching staff, instructional resources, and facilities by schools had a favorable impact on KCSE performance; all three variables were positively connected to academic success. Furthermore, regression analysis demonstrated that the provision of teaching staff, instructional resources, and school infrastructure explained 10.4 percent of variance in KCSE performance. According to the study, secondary school administrators should put in place measures to ensure that the number of teachers is adequate at all times in accordance with Ministry of Education guidelines, bring all education stakeholder son board to ensure that adequate instructional resources are available, and look for ways to improve school facilities.