STRATEGIC PLANNING: A REFORM TOOL FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES BY PRINCIPALS OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NYAMIRA COUNTY- KENYA

Abstract

Performance management practices in most public secondary schools in Kenya over the years have failed to achieve the desired levels thereby creating a ‘performance improvement zone’ which required intervention measures. Strategic planning was adopted and embraced by many schools by 2014 and was seen as a reform tool that could be used to improve performance management in schools. Even though there was an intervention by the Ministry of Education (MOE), by 2015, notable gaps still exist and many schools are still experiencing low achievement levels in management practices. Despite secondary school principals having been trained on strategic planning, there is scanty documented literature on the implementation of the reform tool for improving performance management practices in public secondary schools in Kenya, specifically in Nyamira County. This study therefore, sought to: establish the development of strategic plans, explore the levels of strategic plan implementation, determine the levels of strategic plan control and evaluation, and, explore the extent to which strategic planning was being used. A survey research design was used in this study. The sampled population was 135 public secondary schools in the County. Purposive sampling was used to select, Nyamira county, public secondary schools and Simple random sampling further used to select 45 secondary schools. 45 principals, 45 Board of Management (BOM) and Parents Association (PA) heads of departments were purposively sampled. Slovin formula was further used to determine the number of HODs (3) per school giving a total of 315 respondents. Data was collected through questionnaires for principals, deputy principals and HODs while interview schedules for PA and BOM chairpersons. Document analysis was also used in obtaining secondary data from Schools Strategic plans, Standards assessment and Audit reports. The validity of the instruments was established through scrutiny by the study supervisors. The data from questionnaires were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) computer programme version 22.0 and descriptive and inferential statistics generated. Qualitative data from interview schedules were analyzed thematically and reported in a narrative and direct quote. Data was quantified using descriptive statistics like frequencies and percentages and findings presented in charts, tables and graphs. The major findings of the study indicated that although all the schools had developed strategic plans with clear designs and structures for strategic direction, most Principals were not effectively implementing the strategic plans and strategies were not effectively controlled and evaluated and thus, all these affected improvements in performance management practices. It was therefore concluded that the challenges noted in the performance management practices in the secondary schools were as a result of failure to use strategic planning as a tool for improving performance. Strategic planning, if effectively used by Principals can be a reform tool for driving performance improvement in management practices and it was therefore recommended there is need to strengthen the usage of strategic planning to improve performance management to the desired levels. Finally, further research should be carried out in more counties to determine correlation between strategic planning tool and performance improvement practices.