Strategic Planning and Performance of Secondary Schools in Limuru Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

There is no consensus on whether strategic planning has a positive influence on performance. Various researchers and authors possess divergent views leading to inconsistent planning-performance findings. Although strategic planning is not the sole contributor to high firm performance, most scholars assert that firms that have executed strategic plans perform better than their counterparts. The objectives of the study were to to determine the influence of strategic planning on performance and to establish strategic planning practices adopted by secondary schools in Limuru sub county, Kenya and The target population comprised 37 secondary schools however only 31 participated. Cross sectional survey design was employed. Primary data was collected using closed ended questionnaires and secondary data was collected by obtaining the performance of the schools for the past three years from the KNEC website. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were utilized for data analysis. The study key findings were that majority of the secondary schools in the sub county practiced formal strategic planning. 89% of the public secondary and 59% of the private secondary schools practiced formal strategic planning. The study established that stakeholder involvement and environmental analysis in the process of strategic planning were conducted to a moderate extent. Also the study established that strategic planning was positively correlated to performance. This study gave the following recommendations: Schools management should ensure that the level of stakeholders’ involvement and environmental analysis is increased, the policy developers to organize for trainings to sensitize the schools’ management on the importance of strategic planning. The main limitation was that the study findings are only limited to the secondary schools in Limuru sub county at that particular period. The study concluded that strategic planning is an important practice in secondary schools and both private and public secondary schools should embrace the practice. Finally, future researchers should consider carrying out a similar study in a different context using the same methodology or the same study in the same context but using a different methodology.