Abstract:
In recent years, strategic planning has been adopted by many organizations as a vital tool for improving performance
with remarkable results. Performing organizations rely heavily on the strategies put in place and how well the
strategies are implemented to improve performance. Educational institutions have equally adopted the concept of
strategic planning to give their schools strategic direction for continuous improvement. Preparation of strategic plans
by schools has therefore been seen as a roadmap that schools would follow to achieve desired levels in performance
management practices. This study examined the extent to which the strategic plans had been implemented by the
Principals, the challenges encountered in the process of implementation, and how this affected performance
improvement practices in public secondary schools in Nyamira County, Kenya. The study used descriptive survey
design and involved use of both primary and secondary data. The study targeted 45 Principals, 45 Deputy Principals
and 135 Heads of Departments of selected secondary schools giving a total of 225 subjects. Stratified sampling was
used to group the subjects while simple random sampling was used to select the participants from each stratum.
Purposive sampling was used to select the Principals while Slovin formula was used to select Heads of Departments.
Questionnaires were used for collecting data from the Principals, Deputy Principals and HODs. The Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS)22.0 was used to analyse quantitative data. The findings of the study revealed that although
strategic plans were available in all the schools with clear strategy implementation designs and structures, the
implementation levels of the strategic plan were low, weak and ineffective and this adversely affected improvement in
performance management practices, which was still below the desired levels in most schools. There were no clear
tailor-made programmes to effectively implement the strategies and the implementation processes of the strategic
planning as a tool faced many constraints resulting from inadequate funding, weak control and evaluation structures;
lack of training, BOM, sponsor and community influence which negatively affected strategy implementation in most
schools and hence hindered performance management improvement in most areas. The study recommended that
there is a need to strengthen strategic planning implementation processes and provision of adequate funding by the
government and parents to facilitate effective implementation. Regular visits, assessment, auditing and supervision
should be intensified by education officials to ensure compliance, prudent use of school funds and effective
implementation of strategic plans to improve performance.
Keywords: Evaluation, implementation, strategic planning, improvement, performance management practices, public
secondary schools.
