Relationship between School Strategic Planning and Students’ Academic Performance of Secondary Schools in Rwanda

Abstract

Effective school planning requires having strategies that enhance the students’ academic performance as well as school performance. The current study sought to determine the relationship between school strategic planning and students’ academic performance of Secondary Schools in Rusizi District in Rwanda. Correlation research design was employed. The target population was 988. From this population, simple random sampling and convenient sampling techniques were used to get 91 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. IBM SPSS version 23 assisted in management of quantitative data. The findings revealed that the effectiveness of strategic planning is explained by effective communication considering the mean of 2.96, vision considering the mean of 2.97, and mission considering the mean of 2.90. It was also noted that academic performance of students in selected secondary schools was explained by the following: well performance of students during mock exams considering the mean of 2.92, existence of competition character among students considering the mean of 2.76, low level of absenteeism in classes considering the mean of 2.89, and the existence of the discipline among students considering the mean of 2.83. The findings revealed that strategic planning practices like stakeholders’ involvement and communication have positive and significant relationship with the academic performance. This was explained by (r=298, p=0.006) for stakeholders’ involvement and academic performance and (r=0.084, p=0.028). Hence, the study recommends that secondary schools in Rusizi District should prepare strategic plans that involve all stakeholders since their ideas could be constructive and provide update on the progress in the implementation of strategic plans. The schools should make clear about the vision of strategic planning where this may facilitate the activities related to monitoring and evaluation of the action plan. There is the need to provide training and other capacity building facilities in order increase the abilities in preparing strategic plans.  Keywords: School, students, strategic planning, academic performance and secondary school.