Factors affecting completion of construction projects in secondary schools: a case of Imenti north sub-county, Meru county, Kenyan
Abstract
Project management in the current 21st century is faced with the multifaceted
operations. The school heads play a dynamic role in the management of school
projects. Today you will find uncompleted school buildings, schools without
necessary instructional materials and infrastructure, school laboratories with little or
no equipment, and so on. Secondary schools have been receiving funding meant to
establish or improve existing facilities such as classes, dormitories, laboratories,
libraries, especially since the previous Government took over in 2007 which invested
about 26 billion on economic stimulus program where schools infrastructure was the
main beneficiary. However some projects stalled along the way or even before
commencement, mostly called white elephant projects, as a result some facilities
remain unutilized especially due to none completion. This is especially with the CDF
projects in schools which are usually completed partially or poorly. With this trend
Kenya’s vision 2030 will not be realized. It is in this perspective that this study
investigated the factors that contribute to completion of secondary school projects in
Imenti north Sub County. The specific objectives of the study were; to determine the
extent to which availability of funds affects completion of projects in secondary
schools, to establish how project communication affects project completion, to
establish the relationship between management skills and completion, to determine
the extent to which stakeholder involvement affects completion of projects in
secondary schools. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The target
population for this study consisted of 131 respondents from 43 schools including
school principals, accountants/bursars and BOMs chairpersons in Imenti north Sub
County; In addition, The District Education Officer (DEO), and District Quality
Assurance and Standards Officer (DQASO), in the sub county were sampled. The
sample size was 98 participants selected through proportionate sampling; DQASO
and DEO were purposively selected. This constituted 74.8% of the target population.
Data was collected using questionnaires and interview schedule and was analysed
using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. From the study, it was found that
the factors investigated had influence on construction project completion in secondary
schools in Imenti north Sub County. These were; availability of funds, project
communication processes, project management skills and stakeholders involvement.
In fact all the factors reviewed in this study have an effect on project completion. The
findings showed that there was a significant relationship between the four
independent variables and completion of construction projects. Amongst all the
independent variables, availability of funds statistically was seen to have the most
significant relationship with successful completion of projects (p-value = 0.000) with
t value of (6.235). The findings on financial availability further supported early
studies which state that financial difficulties are the major cause of suspension of
works in construction projects leading to delay in the timely completion of projects.
This study particularly showed that the secondary schools in Imenti north Sub County
lacks adequate funding, adequate project management skills for school principals and
adequate involvement of stakeholders required to successfully complete projects of
secondary schools in Imenti north sub county.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Description
Thesis
Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5980]