Factors Influencing Governance of Board of Management in Public Secondary Schools in Ikutha Sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing governance of Boards of Management in public secondary schools in Ikutha Sub-county. Specifically, the study was set to determine the influence of administrative skills, academic qualification, work experience as well as the level of commitment of BoM members on school matters on governance of public secondary schools. The study was influenced by the fact that Governance of the schools within the county is poorly carried out by BoM; leading to poor academic performance for the last three consecutive years in national examinations in the sub-county. There was also no research done in Ikutha Sub-county on factors influencing governance of Boards of Management in public secondary schools. The study employed descriptive survey design where the target population consisted of 30 principals of the public secondary schools in Ikutha Sub-county and 338 BoM members. All principals were sampled since their size was small and stratified sampling was used to sample 150BoM members. From the study it was established that; administrative skills of BoM members had no significant effect (p>0.043) on governance of Boards of Management in public secondary school, BoM members academic qualification had significant (p<0.000) effect on governance of Boards of Management in public secondary school, BoM members working experience had significant (p<0.000) effect on governance of Boards of Management in public secondary school and BoM members level of commitment had significant (p<0.000) effect on governance of Boards of Management in public secondary school. The study recommends that: the ministry of Education should facilitate the training/workshop attendance of BoM member to sharpen their skills especially on financial, monitoring and evaluation, members of management board should be appointed from persons who have excelled in different areas of specialization and the ministry should ensure that BoM and principals comply with school safety manual by facilitating Quality assurance and standard officers.