Influence of head teachers’ leadership strategies on kenya certificate of primary education performance in public schools in Naivasha sub - county, Nakuru county, Kenya

Abstract

Schools today require collective decision making and team work to achieve better performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of head teacher’s leadership strategies on KCPE performance in public schools in Naivasha sub-county, Nakuru County, Kenya. The study was further guided by the following research objectives; to establish the extent to which the head teachers’ participatory leadership influences pupils KCPE results of public primary schools, to examine the extent to which involvement of stakeholders influences pupils’ KCPE results of public primary schools to establish the extent to which the head teachers communication ability influences pupils’ KCPE results of public primary schools and to determine the extent to which the head teachers instructional supervision influences pupils KCPE Results In Naivasha SubCounty, Nakuru County, Kenya. James Mc Gregor’s (1978). Transformational theory was used as the basis for the study which drew the important distinction between transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Transformational leadership assumes that the central focus of leadership ought to be the commitments and capacities of organizational members. A leader with good moral reasoning is more likely to be perceived as transformational by group members. A descriptive survey research design was adopted in this study. The target population was 72 schools which consisted of 72 head teachers and 851 teachers while the sample size included: 22 head teachers and 88 teachers. In total, the sample size was 110 respondents. They study used questionnaires as research instruments, random and purposive sampling was used to sample questionnaires for head teachers respectively. Content validity was applied using piloting while reliability was ensured by test retest of the instrument. Quantitative data analysis was used to analyze the data collected from the questionnaires, which were coded into the computer with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Data was presented using Tables. The major findings of the study revealed that participatory leadership, involvement of stakeholders, communication ability of the head teacher and instructional supervision have contributes to academic improvement in Naivasha sub-county. The study concluded that there is a significant relationship between leadership strategies employed by head teacher and school performance. If schools hope to perform well, will have to adopt various strategies that take cognizance of the diverse needs of all stakeholders that it purports to serve. The study recommended that school head teachers should adopt participatory leadership by promoting collective decisions making process, providing incentive to teachers and learners, encourage capacity building, team spirit and fair and equal treatment of all teachers and learners in their respective schools. Since the study was carried out in Naivasha sub-county, Nakuru County, therefore the findings of the research recommends a replication of the study in other sub-counties since the findings cannot be generalized. The findings of the research suggest that a study be carried out on the head teachers’ leadership style between staff, pupil and parents/community and challenges faced by head teachers in carrying out instructional supervision in schools.