| dc.description.abstract | Total Quality Management (TQM) is the integration of all functions and departments
within an organization to focus on customer satisfaction through minimizing waste and
continuous improvement. Education in Kenya has been faced with setbacks. This calls for
deliberate action that will bring about the necessary changes in management. Use of
TQM is the first step in realizing these changes. The purpose of the study was to establish
why schools were not performing well, while TQM is the management of schools in
Nyando Sub-County. The objectives of this study were: to assess the influence of top
management commitment on students’ academic performance in public secondary
schools in Nyando Sub-County, to determine the level at which continuous improvement
influences students academic performance in public schools in Nyando sub-County, to
establish the level at which customer satisfaction influence students academic
performance in public secondary schools and to establish the level at which school
culture influence students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Nyando
Sub-County. A conceptual framework showing the interplay among the various variables
was developed to guide the study. The study employed a descriptive survey study. The
target population included 38 public secondary schools within Nyando Sub-County,
which had two Administrative Divisions (Nyando and Kadibo). 10218 respondents were
targeted from Nyando Sub-County public secondary schools. Using the Krejcie and
Morgan table, 370 respondents were sampled from the target population. Data was
gathered through questionnaires. Two semi-structured questionnaires were given to
selected teachers and students from these public secondary schools and interview
schedules were given to the heads. Content validity was done through peer review of
questionnaires. A test-retest was used to measure reliability, and a correlation co-efficient
calculated to show the relationship between the scores using the Pearson product moment
correlation co-efficient. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and
presented using percentages and frequencies distribution tables with the aid of SPSS.
Qualitative data was transcribed, organized into various emerging themes of the study
and reported in a narrative way. The study intended to benefit the education planners,
education managers like the school principals, H.O.D‘s and deputy principals in planning
for school management in formulating better policies that will facilitate good academic
performance of students in public secondary schools and it will also benefit the teachers,
students and parents who are the main customers in the school community. The research
findings show that low top management commitment led to poor academic performance
in schools. 30(35.29%) of teacher respondents said that they were supervised once a term
and disliked it due to unfair remarks, 31(36.47%) agreed that their desks are good enough
to facilitate learning and the areas they needed addressed during capacity building was
team building. 79(37.8%) of students indicated that feedback system was weak In
addition to that most school cultures were bad hence influencing academic performance
negatively. An overall mean of 3.49 and standard deviation of 1.18 implies a significant
influence of school culture on performance. Based on the findings, it was recommended
that these schools in Nyando Sub-County should emphasize their efforts on the type of
management that they employ managers who can implement strategies that can lead to
improvement of quality of education. Furthermore, continuous improvement should be
checked consistently with customer satisfaction in order to enhance better academic
performance. | en_US |
