Teachers’ Perception Of The Effect Of Teacher Characteristics On The Internal Efficiency Of Public Secondary Schools In Kericho County, Kenya

World initiatives in education such as Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have seen many governments make access to education central to their national development strategies mainly by reducing education costs. This has seen many governments invest heavily in education with Kenya allocating a third of her annual budget to education. However, despite this kind of investment, there is little empirical evidence to show that learners are benefitting commensurately. Studies suggest that the human resource plays a crucial role in school efficiency. This study sought to determine teachers‘ perception on the effect of teacher characteristics on the internal efficiency of public secondary schools. The Systems Approach and Production Function Theories were used to relate teacher characteristics (inputs) and internal efficiency of schools (output). Internal efficiency was measured in terms of students‘ academic outcomes at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. This study was conducted within Kericho County. It was based on five objectives which were to: establish the nature of internal efficiency; examine the effect of teacher qualification on internal efficiency; determine how teacher work experience affects internal efficiency; establish the effect of teacher workload on internal efficiency and to determine the influence of teacher turnover on internal efficiency of public secondary schools in Kericho County. The target population was 1318 teachers with the sample size being 298. Cluster sampling was used to sample three districts out of the five in the County. Simple random sampling was used to select teachers while the CDE, three DEOs and the ten Principals were selected using purposive sampling. Sampling of schools was based on school type such as national, county and district/day. Descriptive survey design was used to investigate the problem