Influence of Boards of Management Corporate Governance Practices on Pupils’ Performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in Magarini Sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

Provision of quality education for all the children is one of the objectives of the Government of Kenya. Poor governance in primary schools has led to a lot of ineffectiveness in school management especially in public schools. This has led to decline and inconsistencies in KCPE. Despite the government’s effort to introduce free primary education, increase teacher’s pay to boost their morale, learners. The study sought to investigate the influence of boards of management corporate governance practices on pupils’ performance in KCPE in Magarini Sub-County. The study aimed to establish the influence of BOM’s provision of monetary rewards, management involvement in target setting by BOM, BOM’s provision of learning resource, and BOM’s provision of non-monetary rewards to teachers on pupils’ performance in KCPE in Magarini Sub-County. The study was founded on the Agency theory. This study employed descriptive survey research design. The study target population comprised the 22 public primary schools from Magarini Sub County Education office. The target population was therefore 208 BOM members, 22 BOM chairpersons, 22 headteachers and 260 teachers in Magarini sub-county. Stratified random sampling was used to obtain the sample. Primary data was obtained using questionnaires. The research also adopted interview guide. The data was evaluated with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25.0). All questionnaires obtained were examined and questionnaire items were coded to facilitate data entry. After the data cleaning and error analysis, the descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation was then determined for all quantitative variables. Qualitative information from the questions that are open was analysed and the narrative was presented using thematic content analysis. The study adopted inferential statistics where the t-test was conducted. The study found that the school allows parent to give teachers money for appreciation during prize giving days. The research also found that that time management is not highly valued to achieve targets. Moreover, the research found that it was not certain whether pupil-book ratio in languages is adequate. However, the study found that the hard-working teachers are not recognized through teacher of the year awards.The study concluded that BOM’s provision of monetary rewards had the greatest influence on the pupils’ performance in KCPE in Magarini Sub-County, followed by BOM’s provision of learning resource, then BOM’s provision of non- monetary rewards to teachers, while management involvement in target setting by BOM had the least influence on the pupils’ performance in KCPE in Magarini Sub- County. The Ministry of Education to continue with structured training of the BOM members in all schools for effective leadership and management of schools. This would help to make them more strategic in school management. The study recommends that head teachers and boards of governors should ensure that clear reward policies are formulated and implemented if schools are to retain good teachers and achieve better performance. The policy makers should provide non - monetary reward management practices in primary schools in order to attain higher performance in KCPE.