Assessment of leadership skills on KCPE performance of public primary schools in Nyamira north sub-county, Nyamira county, Kenya

Abstract

There is evidence for poor learners’ KCPE performance in Nyamira North Sub-County which could be associated to the administrative skills of school head-teachers. Several reports from the Ministry of Education (MOE) have indicated that head-teachers’ administrative skills have direct bearing on the overall effectiveness of school because both the teacher and student perform under the leadership of school head-teacher. This study therefore sought to establish the influence of head-teacher administrative skills on KCPE performance of public primary schools in Nyamira North Sub County, Nyamira County. the objectives of the study were; To determine the influence of head-teachers resource utilization skills on KCPE performance in public primary schools in Nyamira North sub-county, To establish the influence of head-teachers’ disciplinary skills on KCPE performance of public primary schools in Nyamira North Sub County, To establish the influence of head-teachers’ learning- teaching utilization skills on KCPE performance in public primary schools in Nyamira North Sub County and To establish the influence of head-teachers’ supervisory skills on KCPE performance in public primary schools in Nyamira North Sub County. The literature focused on the two leadership styles, transformational leadership and transactional leadership and on how they influence resource utilization skills, disciplinary skills, learning teaching utilization skills and supervisory skills, in an attempt to formulate a theory that will underpin the current study. This was a mixed method approach that depended upon concurrent triangulation design. Survey designs are normally used to systematically gather factual quantifiable information necessary for decision-making about characteristics of populations. Target population for the study were 11,932 respondents composed of 33 head teachers, 33 deputy head teachers, 95 heads of departments 320 assistant teachers and 11,451 learners from 33 primary schools in Nyamira North Sub-County. The sample size for this study was 701respondents comprised of 30 head teachers, 30 deputy head teachers, 78 heads of departments, 178 assistant teachers and 386 learners from the 30 sampled public primary schools in Nyamira North Sub-County. The study employed Slovin’s formula (Cochran 1977) n=N/(1+Ne2). The main research instruments that were used in this study were a questionnaire and an interview schedule. Piloting was done in Nyamira Central to test the reliability, validity, dependability and credibility. Quantitative data was analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics employing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 23) and presented in tables, frequencies and coefficient correlation. Qualitative data was analysed in themes and presented in narrative form. From the findings, majority of the respondents indicated that much needs to be done by head-teachers in ensuring that they manage discipline, financial resources, be innovative and practical in the teaching approaches implemented and ensure that they overlook all areas with high levels of precision. Additionally, it was found that the government should also find ways to ensure they equip school heads with administrative skills by enrolling them to workshops among other seminars.