Succession Of Principals And Its Influence On Secondary Schools Performance In Trans Nzoia County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Influenceive institutional management is critical for the realization of quality education

which is necessary for the attainment of national socio-economic development. In Kenya

there are secondary schools that have consistently performed well due to good

management. It is however noted that during administrative succession, there are likely to

be disruptions that may adversely affect the stability in these schools. Successful

administrative succession enhances continuity in the service delivery in the affected

schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of succession of

principals on performance of secondary schools in Trans-Nzoia County in Kenya. The

objectives of the study were to; establish the factors that influence the succession of

principals in secondary schools in Trans-Nzoia County, assess the influence of the

succession of principals on the staff morale, and establish the influence of the succession

of principals on schools’ performance in co-curricular activities, determine the influence

of the succession of principals on the schools’ academic performance and establish the

influence of succession of principals on students’ discipline. The study adopted a

descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study was 132

principals, 867 teachers, 334 non-teaching staff, 132 members of the Boards of

Management, 7 representatives from sponsor churches and three quality assurance

officers from the county. Purposive sampling was used to select the 44 principals, 44

members of the Boards of Management; saturated sampling was used to select 7

representatives of the sponsor churches and 3 quality assurance and standards officers.

Simple random sampling was used to select 260 teachers and 100 members of the nonteaching

staff. A total of four hundred and fifty eight (458) respondents formed the

sample for the study. Primary data was collected from the respondents using a

questionnaire and interviews while secondary data was obtained from document analysis.

The reliability of the research instruments was determined through the Pearson’s product

moment method using the data obtained during the pilot study. Data were analyzed using

both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics used were percentages

and frequencies while t-test and linear regression analysis were used as inferential

statistics for testing the hypothesis. The findings of the study were that succession of

principals in Trans Nzoia County was necessitated by poor students’ academic

performance, students’ indiscipline and normal TSC transfers. Study findings further

indicated that succession of principals both internal and external led to improved

students’ academic performance, internal succession had significant influence on

students’ discipline while external succession had no significant influence on students’

discipline; the study also indicated that both internal and external succession had

significant influence on performance in co-curricular activities. The study concludes that

proper succession management strategies should be put in place to enable enhancement

of these positive outcomes. Succession management policies should be properly put in

place and supported to avoid any incidences of resistance to succession. It is hoped that

the findings of the study may help education policy makers to influenceively plan for

succession.