Influence of Boards of Management Corporate Governance Practices on Pupils’ Academic Performance in Public Primary Schools in Gilgil Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to find out the influence of corporate governance practices by BOM on pupils KCPE performance in Gilgil sub county, Kenya. The objectives that guided the study were stakeholder participation, BOM competence, financial Management and monitoring of teaching and learning by BOM on academic performance. The study employed the descriptive survey research design and the target population comprised of all the 69 head teachers, 69 public primary schools BOM chairs and 211 class six, seven and eight class teachers in the 69 primary schools in Gilgil Sub-county and the Sub County Education Officer. The stratified random sampling method was used for segmenting the respondents in the different strata because the target population was heterogeneous. Fifty percent of the population in all the strata’s was considered for the study .The researcher used questionnaires and an interview guide as the instruments for data collection. The questionnaires were administered on the teachers, head teachers and BOM chairs while the interview guide on the Sub County Education Officer. The study found out that: Most of the respondents deemed their schools as having enhanced capacities to engage parents in the activities carried out the schools had suffered situations of disharmony attributed to feelings of non-involvement in the decision making processes. The ability of the schools to adhere to the provisions put in place for financial audit requirements were confirmed to have been fair. Most of the respondents identified with the ideals of putting in place the BOMs in their schools and were of the view that the procedures conformed to the standards of the Ministry of Education but despite the stringent conditions the schools still faced inadequacies accruing from the processes. Most of the respondents deemed the monitoring activities carried out by the BOM in the schools to be average. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should put in place measures to ensure the governance systems in the public primary schools instill the essence of democratic governance. It should also empower the BOMs by way of facilitating training on financial management as a measure of arming them with the requisite skills enough to enable them exercise their mandate effectively. The establishment of the BOMs in the respective schools should always be supervised by the Ministry of Education as a measure of ensuring that the ideals of the statutory provisions are realized in an effective manner. Capacity building should equally be done on the BOM as a measure of ensuring that they discharge their mandates of monitoring teaching and learning in the public primary schools in the required manner.