The Effect of Strategic Administrative Initiatives on Academic Performance in Kisii County’s Public Secondary Schools, Kenya

Abstract

Strategic administrative initiatives in schools helps in identifying emerging trends and anticipate future challenges, allowing them to prepare and respond proactively so as to bring change in students’ academic performance. For three consecutive years (2016 -2018), Kisii County’s mean standard score in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education declined resulting to an average mean standard score of 3.765 (D+) which was still below the National Mean Standard Score of 3.962. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which strategic administrative initiatives influence academic performance. Education Production Function theory was applied. The study employed a descriptive survey design. Target population of 353 principals and 4354 teachers were considered from 353 public secondary schools in Kisii County. Slovin’s formula with a margin error of 0.05 was used to sample 28 principals and 341 teachers as respondents. Stratified random sampling was used to get school categories. Instruments for this research included: questionnaire for teachers and interview schedule for principals. Validity of research instruments was ascertained by supervisors’ inputs from the School of Education Kisii University. Questionnaires were considered reliable since Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha 0.998 obtained was higher than the critical Cronbach alpha of 0.7 on a scale of -1 to +1 by use of test re-test method. Data was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative data on interview schedules were organized based on research objective and themes of study. Data was presented using percentages, means, frequency distribution tables and bar graphs for easier interpretation. This study’s findings were: The strategic administrative initiatives have a positive influence on academic performance. This study is significant as it indicates that county and sub-county secondary schools need to improve on the application of the strategic administrative initiatives in the academic activities/programs for them to do better academically. In conclusion, National and Extra- County secondary schools’ strategic administrative initiatives have a high positive influence on academic performance compared to county and sub-county secondary schools.