Influence of Organizational Factors on Education Management Information Systems Outcomes in Counties of Nyanza Region, Kenya

Abstract

Information systems are created to enable organisations utilise technologies to gather and use information for effective management. The Ministry of Education (MOE) is committed to the implementation of Education Management Information System (EMIS) to provide data to improve planning, policy formulation and decision-making. MOE provides IT infra structure, trains personnel to manage data collection and it provides funds annually to the District Education Officers (DEO) to facilitate EMIS activities since 2004. Despite these efforts, EMIS technical team survey reveals that data capture completion rate has been low at the districts education offices thereby delaying the nationwide data processing; while the counties of Nyanza had the lowest data entry completion rate. Therefore this study determined the influence of organizational factors on EMIS outcomes in the counties of Nyanza Region. The study employed both correlation and descriptive survey designs. The population consisted of 36 District EMIS coordinators, 72 Data Capture Personnel, 36 DEOs and the Regional EMIS Coordinator. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 29 District EMIS coordinators, 68 Data Capture Personnel, 29 DEOs and 1 Provincial EMIS Coordinator. The data were collected using questionnaires and Interview schedules. The regression results showed that organizational factors contributed 18.3% towards EMIS outcomes. Management support (beta = 0.295) and resources allocation (beta = 0.286) were the best organizational predictors of EMIS outcomes. The study recommended the transfer of data capture process from the DEOs to individual learning institutions to reduce the bulk of work of data capture and number of EMIS personnel at DEOs office.