| dc.description.abstract | Despite the measures and efforts put in place to enhance good academic results, gaps have been identified; student's performance in KCSE in Nyamira District is still wanting. This poor performance diminishes students' opportunity for future job placement and at the same time reduces their chances of meaningful participation in national development. It is in the light of this background that the researcher intends to identify the headteachers and institutional factors that may be influencing the performance in the district. The study sought to achieve five objectives which centered on selected institutional factors in relation to KCSE performance.
The objectives were: to establish the influence of provision of teaching and learning resources on students' performance in KCSE in Nyamira District. To assess the influence of teachers' characteristics on students' performance in KCSE in Nyamira District. To determine the influence of the headteachers' supervision in teaching and learning process on students' performance in KCSE in Nyamira District. To establish whether physical facilities have any influence on students' performance in KCSE in Nyamira District and to examine the influence of appropriate student personnel services on students' performance in KCSE in Nyamira District.
Survey research design was employed in the study. The study was carried out on 45 public secondary schools within Nyamira district. A review of related literature was carried out under the following sub-headings: teachers' characteristics, teachers' qualification, teachers' teaching experience, teachers' in-service training, and provision of instructional materials, supervision, appropriate students' personnel services and their influence on students' performance. The study embarked on ex-post facto design and the data was collected using two sets of questionnaires that is; the headteachers and form 4 subject teachers.
The instruments were piloted and tested for validity and reliability. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data analysis. A total 124 questionnaires were returned giving average response rate of 80.5 from headteachers and form 4 subject teachers. This percentage deemed adequate for data analysis using SPSS statistical package.
The study established that the provision of teaching and learning resources had significant influence on students' performance. There was a statistically significant influence of teaching and learning resources on students' performance, the influence had weak relationship. Although, teacher characteristics may affect students' performance in ideal situations, however there may be some inherent characteristics among the head teachers that can revert to the ideal situations.
It was noted that instructional supervision improves the relationship between the head teacher, teachers and students, however, teachers felt uneasy during supervision. Lack school library significantly affected students' achievement in the district. Lastly, all the head teachers indicated that they do not have adequate teachers in their schools. To mitigate the shortage the schools have employed BOG teachers to supplement the TSC employed teachers.
The study concluded that, student's performance in Nyamira is affected by lack of requisite physical facilities, teaching, learning resources, students discipline, absenteeism, inadequate funding of school activities, inadequate teachers, poor syllabus coverage due to professionalism lapse and motivation among teachers, poor involvement of parents, BOG and other stakeholders. Headteachers also contribute to the poor performance of KCSE in the district for having not implemented the policy of instructional supervision in their respective schools.
TSC should employ more teachers to reduce workloads. Parents should be involved in the Management of School activities especially they should supplement the government fund to provide learning and teaching facilities for effective learners' performance. The study recommended the following areas of further research: the impact of instructional supervision on KCSE performance, the role of TSC on effectiveness of headteachers in instructional supervision, research be conducted on other factors that may influence performance in KCSE other than headteachers' and institutional factors, other researchers could carry out similar study in private schools in the District for comparison, the study focused on a rural setting a similar study could be carried out in an urban setting to give a balanced views of the headteachers and institutional factors that influence students' performance in public secondary schools. | en_US |
