Principals’ Involvement of Students in Decision Making and Discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Baringo County, Kenya

Abstract

The persistent student indiscipline in form of unrests in secondary schools and their never-ending desire to destroy school property probably reflects a feeling of disaffection rather than that of a sense of ownership of the schools they attend. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of principals’ involvement of students in decision making on their discipline in public secondary schools in Baringo County, Kenya. This study was anchored on Assertive Discipline Model as advocated by Canter and Canter (2001). The research employed descriptive survey research design. The study employed proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The target population was 121 principals, 920 class teachers and 242 students. Stratified proportionate random sampling was used to obtain 41 principals 292 teachers and 80 students. Questionnaires for teachers and students were used for data collection, while interview guide was used to gather data from principals. Reliability was determined through test-retest method and calculated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient resulting in coefficient value of 0.8 and 0.72 for teachers and students questionnaire respectively. Content Validity was ensured through expert judgment. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics that included mean and standard deviation while inferential statistics included correlation analysis assisted by SPSS and presented in tables and graphs. The findings showed the existence of a positive relationship between the principals’ involvement of students in decision making and students’ discipline(r=0.753; p=0.00). Most of the principals used student involvement strategies such as allowing students choice of dressing code and choice of menu decisions. This study concludes that involving students in choosing time of study, food menus and the choice of entertainment, and management of students and welfare issues influenced student discipline reasonably. Thus the study therefore recommends that secondary school board of management should actively involve students in all areas of decision-making in school with particular emphasis on decisions relating to the welfare of the student. The study recommends future research on the influence of BOM governance on students discipline in secondary schools.