Research Publications

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Author: search.filters.author.Gachahi, Michael

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    Headteachers’ Staff Management Strategies and Pupils’ Academic Performance in Private Primary Schools in Nyeri and Murang’a Counties, Kenya
    (2023-04) Muriuki, Maina Peterson; Kimosop, Maurice; Gachahi, Michael
    Headteachers use different staff management strategies to coordinate day to day running of schools and to develop an environment that helps motivate pupils. These management strategies may be responsible for the disparity in school performance. Studies on head teachers’staff management strategies have concentrated on public schools, leaving out private schools. This study aims to examine the influence of headteachers’ staff management strategies on pupils’ academic performance in private primary schools in Nyeri and Murang’a Counties in Kenya. The study was guided by Bertalanffy and Weihrich's Systems theory which claims that an organized enterprise does not exist in isolation but depends on the environment in which it’s established. The study used a descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study is 2,630 head teachers and teachers from 259 private primary schools in the Murang’a and the Nyeri Counties. The schools considered had done KCPE for at least five years before the study period. The study employed Slovin’s formula to determine the number of head teachers and teachers where 58 headteachers and 342 teachers were estimated to be representative samples for respective groups. The research also selected 15 SCQASOs using purposive sampling, while simple random sampling was adopted to select 158 schools from the two Counties. At the school level, the researcher recruited a headteacher using a purposive approach and two or three teachers using simple random sampling. A questionnaire was adopted to collect data from headteachers and teachers and interview schedules from SCQASOs. The researcher used Cronbach’s alpha to compute the reliability of the study tools and determined at 0.7; all variables had an alpha coefficient above 0.7, which implies an internal consistency. The researcher also tested the content and the construct validity of the questionnaire by submitting the questionnaire. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and presented using charts and tables. Qualitative data were analysed using Atlas.it, coded while quantitative data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher used descriptive methods such as frequency distribution and correlation coefficient. The study found head teachers’ staff management strategies accounted for 83.9% of variations in private schools' performance in Nyeri and Murang’a Counties. The study also found staff management had statistical significance influence on the performance of private primary schools in Nyeri and Murang’a Counties at α=0.05.
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    Influence of Principals’ Collaborative Practices on Students’ Performance in Secondary Schools in Murang’a and Kirinyaga Counties, Kenya
    (Journal of Education, 2019-11) Irungu, Cecilia; Kagema, Josphat; Gachahi, Michael
    Despite the fact that Kenyan children have more opportunities to attend school, there still remains large gaps in learning outcomes. This stagnation in learning is confirmed by results of national examinations including Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). According to KCSE examinations results analysis, performance in secondary schools in different parts of Kenya is still below expectations and this trend is worrying. The number of students in Murang’a and Kirinyaga Counties who have continuously scored grade D+ and below every year have consistently remained high compared to those attaining university minimum admission grade of C+ and above. This low performance has persisted despite most schools having adequate and well trained teachers as well as adequate facilities. This study examined the influence of principals’ collaborative practices on students’ performance in Murang’a and Kirinyaga Counties, Kenya. The study involved a sample of 205 principals and 367 teachers selected from 436 secondary schools in the two counties. The researchers used validated questionnaires and interview schedules to collect data from teachers and principals respectively. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that principals’ promotion of collaborative practices was higher in Kirinyaga than in Murang’a County. It was noted that secondary schools in Kirinyaga County post better results in KCSE than those in Murang’a County and the study concluded that collaborative practices enhanced academic performance. This study recommended that principals should promote collaborative practices in their schools. This can be done through engaging stakeholders in networking and linkages that promote collaboration and can lead to better academic performance.
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    Challenges Faced by Student Leaders in Managing Student Affairs in Public Universities in Kenya
    (International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies, 2019-01) Murage, Lucy Muthoni; Njoka, Johannes; Gachahi, Michael
    Effective management of student affairs in public universities continue to pose a major challenge to university administrators and student leaders in many parts of the world including Kenya. Public universities are perpetually ravaged by rampant incidences of student unrests and strikes yet innovative approaches meant to curb such incidences have been adopted that involved student leaders in governance of institutions of higher learning. The effectiveness of these innovative approaches in university governance is not clearly documented. The rationale of the study was to analyse the challenges faced by student leaders in managing student affairs in public universities in Kenya. The study employed descriptive survey research design. Stratified random sampling was used to select student leaders from public universities in Kenya. The sample size comprised of 19 members of student governing councils, 50 class representatives and 73 clubs and society leaders, making a total of 142 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires. Analysed data revealed that 50.4% of the student leaders experienced challenges while executing their functions. The major challenges included conflict between academic pursuits and leadership roles, lack of teamwork among student leaders and students’ ignorance of university policies and statutes. The study further established a strong and statistically significant relationship between the challenges faced by student leaders and effective student affairs services in public universities at 0.05 levels of significant with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.789. The study concluded that challenges experienced by student leaders may impede effective discharge of their duties and may result in poor service delivery leading to incidences of riots. The study recommends that student leaders should be assisted to solve internal problems that may affect the effective discharge of their duties as a way of addressing unrests in public universities.
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    Principals’ Supervision of Teaching and its Influence on Promoting Learners’ Performance
    (Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 2019-07-07) Irungu, Cecilia; Kagema, Josphat; Gachahi, Michael
    The roles of school principals have been focal in ensuring and promoting the performance of students in their schools, achieving and sustaining quality education. This has been influenced by the paradigm shifts and global trends to ensure that the quality agenda as espoused in various international and national policies such as Sustainable Educational Goals. A cardinal role is ensuring on teacher supervision in curriculum implementation in their schools. The design of principals’ transformational leadership practices is evidenced to contribute in increased learners’ performance in national examinations as well as fostering transformative school environment. Instructional Leadership is significant in fostering teachers’ instructional practices and subsequently students’ learning and achievement. The aim of this study was to examine the role of principals in the supervision of teaching and its influence on promoting learners’ performance. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design with a target population of 436 principals and 8,049 teachers from secondary schools in Murang’a and Kirinyaga Counties of Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to select 205 principals while 367 teachers were selected using stratified and then simple random sampling methods. The researcher used open and closed-ended questionnaires to collect quantitative data from the teachers and semi-structured interview schedules to gather qualitative data from principals. A pilot study of the instruments was conducted in two schools in Kiambu County of Kenya and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient with a threshold of 0.7 was used to determine the internal consistency of the items. The instruments yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.962, hence were considered reliable. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Hypotheses were tested at p>0.5 level of significance using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-test determined whether or not the means were statistically significant. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether the principals’ instructional leadership practice is a predictor of learners’ performance. The findings of the study were that the level of supervision of teaching was moderate and therefore had significant impact on learners’ performance. The study recommended that there is need for supervision of teaching. The research findings are of significance to principals in designing instructional strategies to improve learners’ performance and to policy makers in the education sector in designing policies that can support effective instructional leadership practices in schools.
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    Contextualising the Influence of Socialization Agents in Shaping Primary School Pupils Behaviour in Thika Sub-County, Kenya
    (Pedagogical Research, 2018-10-16) Mwangi, Esther Wanjiru; Ndung’u, Catherine; Gachahi, Michael
    Socialization agents shape pupils’ behaviour. Pupils’ behaviour has deteriorated over time in primary schools in Kenya. The purpose of the study was to contextualise the influence of socialization agents in shaping primary school pupils in Thika Sub County. The objective of the study was to assess the role of school variables in shaping pupils’ behaviour. Descriptive research design was applied with a target population comprising of 570 teachers, 3256 pupils and 69 head teachers. The sample size consisted of 57 teachers, 325 class seven pupils and 7 school heads. The research instruments used consisted of the teachers and pupils questionnaire and an interview guide for head teachers and sub county director of education. The research instruments were piloted and a correlation coefficient of < 0.7 was acceptable. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the Scientific Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study established that the school rules played a key role in management of children’s behaviour in school since they maintained socially acceptable norms within the school. However the school rules did not dictated the form of punishment for non-compliance. The school should carry out background checks on learners in order to establish behavioural issues that are likely to face from a particular set of learners. This would assist in discipline management in schools. The teachers should also consider prior behavioural and discipline issues in order to determine how to address the current pupils’ indiscipline. The school administrators should ensure that the school rules specify the punishment for various issues of non-adherence to the rules. This would assist in having uniform forms of punishment and thus learners would understand the punishments and the role of punishment in shaping their behaviour.