Organizational Climate and Performance in Sciences at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in Public Secondary Schools in Nairobi Province

Abstract

The mam purpose of the study was to investigate whether a significant relationship existed between organizational climate as perceived by teachers and performance in sciences at K.C.S.E in public secondary schools in Nairobi Province. The other purpose was to find out the significance of the relationships between selected principals' and schools' variables and organizational climate. The principals' demographic variables were; age, sex, area of specialization, professional experience and academic qualifications. The schools' variables were; category, sex of the student body and size. The research design used was Ex Post Facto. The sample size comprised 40 principals and 320 teachers from a population of 47 principals and 2437 teachers. Random sampling was used to select 8 teachers from each of the participating schools. Likerts profile of a school questionnaire was selected as the instrument of the study. The organizational climate score was used to describe the school's climate with respect to its position on Likert's authoritative-participative climate continuum. The techniques used to analyse data were pearson correlation analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-tests. Findings of the study indicated that there were no significant differences in school organizational climate as a function of the principal's (a) age (b) sex (c) area of specialization (d) professional experience and (e) academic qualification.

Additionally, there were no significant differences in school organizational climate as a function of (a) school category (b) sex of the student body and (c) school size. However, there were significant differences in performance in sciences as a function of school category. The mean performance index (MPI) for boarding schools was significantly higher than for day schools. There were no significant differences in performance in sciences as a function of the sex of the student body, nor were there significant relationships between school organizational climate and performance in sciences. It was found that in cases where there were significant differences, there was a small amount of variance in school organizational climate and performance in sciences accounted for by the variables utilized in this study. As a recommendation, the Ministry of Education (MOE) should encourage, through legislation and education, widespread participation of stakeholders in school decision making and policy formulation. This will create an enabling school organizational climate for teachers and tempt them to improve performance in sciences. The Parents Teachers Association (PTA), though not playing a significant role in school policy formulation, should be recognized through legislation and thus be empowered to manage schools. This will encourage parents and teachers to own the objectives of the school and be motivated to improve their performance. The Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) can, for instance, play a pivotal role in emphasizing parent-teacher-student participative practice through incorporation into the content of the curriculum for educators and institutions of learning at preuniversity level. Replication of the research is suggested so as to draw participants from other provinces and rural settings. Focus should also be directed to identification of variables other than those utilized in this study that may significantly affect organizational climate and performance.