Strategic planning and performance of public secondary schools in Kajiado north sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

scanning, strategy formulation, linking goals to budgets and strategic planning as a process (Wagner, 2006). Many researchers argue that the correlation of strategic planning and performance has not been clearly established and that although strategic planning is not the sole contributor to high organizational performance, organizations with excellently executed strategic plans perform better than their counterparts. Therefore in Kenya, the Government being concerned to provide quality education has made strategic planning a policy through the MoE to all public secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of strategic planning to performance of public secondary schools within Kajiado North Sub-County, Kenya. The objective of the study was to establish the influence of Strategic planning on performance of Public Secondary Schools within Kajiado North sub-County, Kenya. Using cross-sectional research design and structured questionnaires the researcher collected primary data from 14 public secondary schools in Kajiado North Sub-county Kenya. The data was analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics to determine the strength of linear relationship.The key findings of the study were: most schools (71.43%) practice formal strategic planning and strategic planning is positively correlated to performance. It was also established that management do not carry out thorough strategic planning process fully. Therefore it was concluded that strategic planning is an important practice because it affects performance. Also all public secondary schools should engage in formal strategic planning. The main recommendation in this study is for the policy developers through MoE to enhance strategic planning in public secondary schools. Also the school management together with the stakeholders should invest resources, time and energy in the strategic planning process. Finally, future researchers should endeavor to focus on concepts of strategic management that affect organizational performance for instance governance or organizational behavior and performance of public secondary schools.