Influence of school management committees’ Motivational practices on kenya certificate of primary Education performance in public primary schools of Suba-West Division, Migori District, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of school management committees’ motivational practices on KCPE performance in public primary schools of Suba-West division, Migori district. The study aimed at achieving the following objectives: to identify monetary incentives used by SMCs to boost KCPE performance in their schools, to determine how working conditions for teachers influence pupils` KCPE performance, to establish how recognition of teachers by SMCs influence pupils` KCPE performance and determine the challenges facing SMCs on students` KCPE performance. Relevant literature was reviewed that guided the study and gave a background to an integrate approach to motivational practices and conceptual framework were designed. The theoretical framework of the study was based on Role theory advanced by Goffman in 1959. Descriptive survey research design was used in the study. The target population was 50 Head teachers in 50 public Primary Schools, 700 SMC members in Public Primary Schools and 3 ZQASOs in Suba-West division. A total of 263 respondents were sampled for the study comprising of 25 head teachers, 210 SMC members and 3 ZQASOs, simple random sampling technique was used to sample the respondents for the study. Questionnaires and an interview guide were used as instruments for data collection. Data was then analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics and presented as tables, pie charts and bar graphs using statistical package for social science (SPSS) software. The findings: that SMC motivated teachers through rewards to boost KCPE performance in their schools. Recognition by SMC to teachers’ effort was found to influence pupils’ performance in KCPE. Schools where SMC had good relations with the teachers posted better results than those with poor or below average relations. The conclusions of the study: that school management committees are important in influencing KCPE performance in their schools. These SMCs have different ways of boosting KCPE performance at their disposal and the most used is rewarding teachers materially and KCPE performers in order to encourage them. The study concludes that there is a shortage of teachers in Suba-West. Recognition of teachers just like any other employee is critical. SMCs seem to realize this and they have prioritized teacher relations in their activities to improve KCPE performance in their schools. The recommendations: that school management committees should continue playing their role in improving KCPE performance of their schools. The SMCs should also add the number of approaches they use to achieve this goal. This study recommends that the government through the Ministry of Education should consider posting more teachers to Suba-West in order to address the teachers’ shortage in the area. Education stakeholders like the parents, SMCs and educational officers in Suba-West should recognize and appreciate the effort of teachers in improving KCPE performance by rewarding them materially.