Factors influencing school management committee members’ effectiveness in staff motivation in public primary schools in Mavindini Division, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing school management committee members’ effectiveness in teachers motivation in public primary schools in Mavindi Division, Makueni County, Kenya. The study sought to determine the influence of educational level, exposure to training, professional status and working experience of SMC members on teachers motivation in public primary schools in Mavindi Division, Makueni County. The study used descriptive research design to collect data from members of SMC, teachers and head teachers in public primary schools in Mavindini Division. The total number of members of SMC was 294, 169 teachers and 20 head teachers. The researcher used simple random sampling technique to select 12 public primary schools and 12 head teachers. Stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 36 teachers and 72 members of school management committees. The analysis was done by descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0. In addition, Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to establish the relationship between the study variables. The study found that the level of teachers motivation was high where the SMC members had a Masters degree and an undergraduate Degree with a score of 100% and 87.5% respectively. It was clear that where the SMC members attended workshops on human resource management, the staff were highly motivated by the monetary incentives (77.8%), supervision by immediate supervisor (63.9%), work environment (58.3%) and distribution of rewards (52.8%). The study also revealed that years of experience affect motivation as 83.3% of the SMC members had served for 0 – 5 years. The study concluded that training levels of SMCs members has the highest effect on teachers’ motivation, followed by educational levels of SMCs members, then professional status of SMCs members while working experience of SMCs members having the lowest effect on the teachers motivation in Mavindini Division. The study therefore recommends that public schools should review the existing structure of education management and administration to reflect modern needs in teacher education locally and globally.