Influence of tea factories’ governance practices on education development in Kisii County,Kenya

Abstract

Effective governance promotes educational standards leading to efficiency in service delivery. Improved governance has been known for reducing mismanagement, demonizing corruption and ultimately improving overall efficiency in offering educational services. This study sought to investigate the influence of tea factories’ governance practices on education development in Kisii County as guided by the following specific objectives: To examine sponsorship procedures on education development by tea factories in Kisii County, to establish the extent to which tea factories influence provision of facilities towards education development in Kisii County, to examine the influence of promoting co-curricular activities on education development in Kisii County and to assess the influence of training education stakeholders on education development in Kisii County. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and targeted employees of the tea factories estimated at 414. A sample of 124 respondents was selected using stratified random sampling based on various departments within the tea factories. This research relied on primary data which was collected using a semistructured questionnaire which contained open ended and close ended questions. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. The study findings revealed that majority of the respondents agreed that tea factories in Kisii County financed their employees to advance their studies. However, financing of students who were not employees of the tea factories was to a moderate extent. The findings further revealed that tea factories participated in construction of roads for easy access to institutions of learning to great extent. Majority of the respondents were of the opinion that factories participated in sponsorship of games in terms of trophies and cash rewards. However they did not participate in price giving events. Finally, the findings revealed that tea factories carried training on planting tea seedlings for farmers to a great extent. They also partnered with schools to mainstream agricultural issues into their curriculum. Based on the study findings it was concluded that sponsorship, provision of facilities, promotion of co-curricular activities and training of education stakeholders respectively influenced education development in Kisii County. Based on the research findings the following recommendations are given: Management of tea factories to increase scholarship funding for bright and needy students, partner with other like-minded institutions in construction and repair of facilities; management of tea factories to consider providing laboratory equipment and increase sponsorship of training for various educational stakeholders