Factors affecting completion of construction projects in secondary schools: a case of Imenti north sub-county, Meru county, Kenyan

Abstract

Project management in the current 21st century is faced with the multifaceted operations. The school heads play a dynamic role in the management of school projects. Today you will find uncompleted school buildings, schools without necessary instructional materials and infrastructure, school laboratories with little or no equipment, and so on. Secondary schools have been receiving funding meant to establish or improve existing facilities such as classes, dormitories, laboratories, libraries, especially since the previous Government took over in 2007 which invested about 26 billion on economic stimulus program where schools infrastructure was the main beneficiary. However some projects stalled along the way or even before commencement, mostly called white elephant projects, as a result some facilities remain unutilized especially due to none completion. This is especially with the CDF projects in schools which are usually completed partially or poorly. With this trend Kenya’s vision 2030 will not be realized. It is in this perspective that this study investigated the factors that contribute to completion of secondary school projects in Imenti north Sub County. The specific objectives of the study were; to determine the extent to which availability of funds affects completion of projects in secondary schools, to establish how project communication affects project completion, to establish the relationship between management skills and completion, to determine the extent to which stakeholder involvement affects completion of projects in secondary schools. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The target population for this study consisted of 131 respondents from 43 schools including school principals, accountants/bursars and BOMs chairpersons in Imenti north Sub County; In addition, The District Education Officer (DEO), and District Quality Assurance and Standards Officer (DQASO), in the sub county were sampled. The sample size was 98 participants selected through proportionate sampling; DQASO and DEO were purposively selected. This constituted 74.8% of the target population. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview schedule and was analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. From the study, it was found that the factors investigated had influence on construction project completion in secondary schools in Imenti north Sub County. These were; availability of funds, project communication processes, project management skills and stakeholders involvement. In fact all the factors reviewed in this study have an effect on project completion. The findings showed that there was a significant relationship between the four independent variables and completion of construction projects. Amongst all the independent variables, availability of funds statistically was seen to have the most significant relationship with successful completion of projects (p-value = 0.000) with t value of (6.235). The findings on financial availability further supported early studies which state that financial difficulties are the major cause of suspension of works in construction projects leading to delay in the timely completion of projects. This study particularly showed that the secondary schools in Imenti north Sub County lacks adequate funding, adequate project management skills for school principals and adequate involvement of stakeholders required to successfully complete projects of secondary schools in Imenti north sub county.