Influence of selected TQM principles on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Nyando sub county, Kenya

Abstract

Total Quality Management (TQM) is the integration of all functions and departments within an organization to focus on customer satisfaction through minimizing waste and continuous improvement. Education in Kenya has been faced with setbacks. This calls for deliberate action that will bring about the necessary changes in management. Use of TQM is the first step in realizing these changes. The purpose of the study was to establish why schools were not performing well, while TQM is the management of schools in Nyando Sub-County. The objectives of this study were: to assess the influence of top management commitment on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Nyando Sub-County, to determine the level at which continuous improvement influences students academic performance in public schools in Nyando sub-County, to establish the level at which customer satisfaction influence students academic performance in public secondary schools and to establish the level at which school culture influence students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Nyando Sub-County. A conceptual framework showing the interplay among the various variables was developed to guide the study. The study employed a descriptive survey study. The target population included 38 public secondary schools within Nyando Sub-County, which had two Administrative Divisions (Nyando and Kadibo). 10218 respondents were targeted from Nyando Sub-County public secondary schools. Using the Krejcie and Morgan table, 370 respondents were sampled from the target population. Data was gathered through questionnaires. Two semi-structured questionnaires were given to selected teachers and students from these public secondary schools and interview schedules were given to the heads. Content validity was done through peer review of questionnaires. A test-retest was used to measure reliability, and a correlation co-efficient calculated to show the relationship between the scores using the Pearson product moment correlation co-efficient. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented using percentages and frequencies distribution tables with the aid of SPSS. Qualitative data was transcribed, organized into various emerging themes of the study and reported in a narrative way. The study intended to benefit the education planners, education managers like the school principals, H.O.D‘s and deputy principals in planning for school management in formulating better policies that will facilitate good academic performance of students in public secondary schools and it will also benefit the teachers, students and parents who are the main customers in the school community. The research findings show that low top management commitment led to poor academic performance in schools. 30(35.29%) of teacher respondents said that they were supervised once a term and disliked it due to unfair remarks, 31(36.47%) agreed that their desks are good enough to facilitate learning and the areas they needed addressed during capacity building was team building. 79(37.8%) of students indicated that feedback system was weak In addition to that most school cultures were bad hence influencing academic performance negatively. An overall mean of 3.49 and standard deviation of 1.18 implies a significant influence of school culture on performance. Based on the findings, it was recommended that these schools in Nyando Sub-County should emphasize their efforts on the type of management that they employ managers who can implement strategies that can lead to improvement of quality of education. Furthermore, continuous improvement should be checked consistently with customer satisfaction in order to enhance better academic performance.