Impact of in-service training on secondary school head teachers' managerial skills in Nyeri district, Kenya

Abstract

Education is a very important tool in many nations SInce it is tied to all aspects of development. In particular, the education of teachers is very important since they are the ones charged with managing educational institutions. This therefore calls for their continued training and retraining through regular in-service causes throughout their entire working period. In an endeavour to uphold their professionalism continuing teacher education has been one the major concerns of the government through the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders. One such approach has been the in-service courses organized by the Ministry of Education. This study endeavoured to investigate the impact of in-service training on teachers' managerial skills in Nyeri District. Through a number of objectives and formulated research questions, the study sets out to investigate the impact of in-serving skills on headteachers managerial skills. It also sought the impact of these skills on various aspects of management such as financial management, curriculum and instruction., student personnel, school plant, staff personnel and school community relations. The literature review delved into literature related to administrative tasks, need for in¬service education and managerial skills. Reviewed were also studies on school personnel and studies on the need for in-service training. A conceptual framework was also provided The research methodology, which was a descriptive survey design, used questionnaires as the instrument for data collection. Two questionnaires, one for head teachers and one for the District Quality Assurance Staffing Officer (DQUASA) were used to collect data and their validity established to be adequate. The questionnaire return rate was 67% and 100% for the headteachers and DQUASO respectively. Data from the questionnaire was interepreted and presented in frequency and percentages tables. The study revealed that there was need for in-service training in order to enable school . headteachers to integrate' new knowledge and accommodate changes in the management of institutions so as to make them relevant to the society. The study also found that subject areas in the in-service training were too theoretical and could not be easily applied. There was confusion over how discipline differs from punishment. The study further revealed that business accounting systems were more favourable to the headteachers rather than the traditional accounting systems were more favourable to the headteachers rather than the tradition a l accounting system. The study revealed that improved management of school could not be realized without addressing the problem of lack of resources, attitude and conservation evaluation. The revelations led to the recommendations that there should be improved financial management through focusing on the school size, introduction of in-service courses for non teaching staff, counseling for headteachers, hiring of experts and adaptation of business type accounting. The study also recommended the introduction of motivational strategies for staff and proper delegation of duties. Further research was recommended on operational research on INSET. Further areas suggested for comprehensive research include evaluating the best performing institution versus poor performers in order to determine bow to harmonise INSET to cater for management need for all schools.