ISSUES THAT INFLUENCE IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIC PLANS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS – A CASE OF GARISSA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Strategic planning has been used in schools in developed countries leading to school improvement. Strategic planning can help an organization to clarify future direction, to establish priorities, to diversify its products or services and to deal effectively with rapidly changing circumstances. The study was conducted in Garissa County and sought to find out issues that influence implementation of strategic plans in public secondary schools in the County. Despite the evidence of the existence of strategic plans in most of the public secondary schools, the concern has been failure by institutions to implement them. The purpose of the study was to establish issues that influence implementation of strategic plans in public secondary schools in Garissa County. The target population for the study were school principals, BoG members and teachers in public secondary schools in Garissa County. Stratified random sampling techniques and census methods were used at various stages of the research process. The study focused on independent variables such as leadership quality, resource allocation, stakeholder involvement, human resources capacity and school culture. The respondents were 22 school Principals, 22 Teachers and 25 BoG members. The instruments of the study were questionnaires in which both open and closed ended questionnaires were used. The data collected was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) utilizing descriptive statistics such as frequency table and graphs. The study found that the implementation of strategic plans in schools is faced with a number of challenges that include lack of funds, political interference and to some extent, security. Of these challenges, lack of funds is the most prevalent. Further, most schools depend on school fees and government grants as the only source of revenue. The study therefore recommends that schools should diversify on their sources of finance so that they do not only rely on fees and government grants, but can also generate funds through other income generating activities. Article visualizations: