KeMU Digital Repository
Not a member yet
446 research outputs found
Sort by
Awarding of Degree
No full textThis is a picture of H.E Ferdinard Ndungu Waititu being awarded a masters degree after successfully completing his cours
Capacity building modules for public libraries to support small-scale business enterprises in Meru County, Kenya
Get PDFThe lack of well-structured capacity building programmes is a serious drawback to the effective development of small-scale business enterprises (SBEs) in Kenya. Public libraries as community information centres can collaborate with other stakeholders in facilitating the required skills. This study investigated the training needs of SBE traders and public library staff with the aim of proposing capacity building modules that can be considered by public libraries in Meru County, Kenya in their endeavour to support the SBEs. In implementing the study, a mixed methods approach was used and the survey research design adopted. Cluster and systematic sampling techniques were used in getting 355 SBE traders while census was used on twenty-one library staff and on two staff from Meru County government. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the required data. The response rate was 83.4% and 95% for SBE traders and public library staff respectively. Descriptive statistics and thematic techniques were used to analyse the data. We used the findings of this study and the scholarly insights from previous studies to propose two sets of capacity building modules: for SBE traders and for the public library staff. The training areas comprise business information literacy, technology competency, and nature of information in the business domain. We recommend the adoption of the proposed modules in public libraries in Kenya in elevating support and value contribution in the development of the small business community. We further recommend a training policy for SBEs and the recruitment of experienced, skilled and knowledgeable business librarians
Challenges faced by secondary school principals in the implementation of school strategic plans:A case of Mathira sub-county, Nyeri,Kenya
No full textA strategic plan is a management tool that charts the course of direction a school intends to take to enhance productivity and increase efficiency. To achieve the desired results, a strategic plan must be implemented. However, some researchers have noted that organizations fail to implement up to 70% of their strategic plans and this is due to several challenges that have to be addressed. This study sought to investigate the challenges faced by principals in the implementation of strategic plans in public secondary schools in Mathira Sub-County in Nyeri County. The variables examined were: school's structure, school's culture, availability of resources, and the principal's management skills. Descriptive research design was used in this study. The target population comprised of 40 principals, 520 members of Board of Management and 320 Heads of Departments. A sample of 12 principals, 12 chairpersons of Board of Management and 96 heads of departments were selected through both simple random sampling and purposive sampling methods. The researcher collected data by administering questionnaires to the principals and Heads of Departments, and an interview schedule for the chairpersons of the Board of Management. A pilot study was carried out prior to the main study in order to test the reliability and validity of the instruments. The data collected was quantitative and qualitative in nature. [twas analyzed using descriptive statistics and by organizing it into appropriate categories or themes, accordingly. The analyzed data was presented in frequency tables, pie charts, bar graphs and in prose form. The study established that public secondary schools in Mathira Sub¬County had formulated strategic plans but had failed to implement them as planned. The study also established that the school structure was not flexible and the culture was not aligned to the implementation of strategic plans. Besides, schools lacked adequate resources and all these factors posed a challenge to the implementation of strategic plans. The study also established that most of the implementation process was done by the top level managers. Based on these findings, it was concluded that structure, culture, availability of resources and management skills affect the implementation of strategic plans. The study recommends that the structure of the schools be made flexible and the school culture is aligned to the implementation of strategic plans. The government should also channel more funds to schools and offer capacity building courses for education managers. Finally, all managers should be involved in the implementation process
Relationship between strategy formulation and performance of public organisation in Isiolo County Government
No full textStrategic formulation is a management tool for measuring negotiated performance targets. It is a freely negotiated performance agreement between the government, acting as the owner of public agency on one hand, and the management of the agency on the other hand. The strategy in County governments is guideline for ensuring development effectiveness and it is aimed at aligning the County government development priorities, expected outcomes and general results, with budget levels. This is essential in ensuring both financial sustainability and human capacity to facilitate successful adoption and implementation of strategies formulated by County governments. The County government strategies are developed as a means of enhancing results based performance management and efficiency in their operations. The general objective of the study was to establish the relationship between strategies formulation and performance in Isiolo County Government. The specific objectives of the study were to establish the relationship between leadership support, government policies, employees skills, organization study adopted descriptive research design. According to Kothari (2009), descriptive research is used when the problem has been well designed. In choosing the members who will participated the study focus on the management and heads of sections. The total number of respondents was 63 management level employees. The study was anchored on the theory of research allocation, holistic strategy, implementation and sequential thinking theory. This study assumed that all the respondents will respond honestly to the questionnaire and that the population identified will represent the entire county governments in Kenya. Adopt census sample design since the target population was manageable and the respondents were within systems that can was accessed easily. The questionnaire was used to collect the data from the sample. The researcher administered the questionnaire to the respondents and gives them 3 days to complete, and later picked them. Descriptive statistics which includes mean and standard deviations were to capture the study findings. Pearson correlation test as used in hypothesis testing analyzed that data was presented for better comparison using tables. The result shows that the data collected and the statistical analysis with tables. The study concluded that there is positive relationship the study concluded that leadership, government policy, employee skills and organization structure have influence on the performance Isiolo government. It was recommended that The leadership should provide the required support to ensure that strategic plans formulated influences the county government performance. The governments should ensure that employees are regularly trained on strategic management to enhance their skills for effective formulation of strategic plans, The County government should come up with policies on County government management that support the formulation of strategic plans and, the County government should come up with an organization structures that covers the areas of focus as identified in the key strategic issues
Impact of child abuse on academic performance of pupils in public primary schools in Kieni West sub county, Nyeri county.
No full textABSTRACT
Child abuse has become a global problem that needs to be tackled if children are to be given the right to education and freedom. Early exposure to adverse childhood experiences including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse are strong predictors of poor academic performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of child abuse on the academic performance of pupils in public primary schools in Kieni West Sub-county, Nyeri County. The objectives of the study were to establish the level of awareness of child abuse among pupils in public primary schools, to determine the influence of child abuse on pupils' school attendance, to establish the relationship between child abuse and pupils' behaviour, and to determine how child abuse contributed to learning disorders among pupils in public primary schools. The study was guided by social learning theory. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population for this study comprised 52 head teachers, 560 teachers and 2,275 pupils. A sample of 26 head teachers, 280 teachers and 228 pupils was selected using proportionate random sampling. A pilot study was done in two randomly selected schools in the neighbouring Sub County in order to enhance validity and reliability. Data was collected through questionnaires for the teachers and pupils and interview schedules for the head teachers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data and content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Relationship between variables was tested using the Chi-square test. To assist in data analysis, SPSS version 20.0 was used. Results were presented using charts, descriptions and tables. The findings of the study showed that pupils had low level of awareness of child abuse, and child abuse was found to affect school attendance, pupils' behaviour giving rise to disorders and all the hypotheses were therefore rejected. Based on the findings, recommendations were made by various authors stating that child rights in social studies are insufficient towards teaching on issues touching on child abuse. The school management, churches, media and non-governmental organizations should also be more vigilant in creating awareness about child abuse and the guidance and counselling departments in primary schools should be strengthened to handle different cases of child abuse. This would help the abused children cope better and improve the quality of their lives. Peer counselling among pupils should be encouraged. It was suggested that further investigation should be carried out to find out other factors which could be contributing to the poor performance among the learners
Relationship between appraisal systems and performance of Technical training institutes in Meru County
No full textPerformance appraisal is a branch of management science referred to as Management Control Systems and is an appraisal agreement to execute a service according to agreed-upon terms, within an established time period, and with a stipulated use of resources and performance standards. Performance of TVET institutions is affected by four uncoordinated admissions of students to TVET programmes such as low enrolment due to high cost of technical training and lack of awareness. Performance appraisal has over the years become a very crucial part of Human Resource Management in organizations and its benefits all over the world cannot be over-emphasized. The main objective the study focused on was to find out the relationship between performance appraisal systems and performance of Technical Training Institutes in Meru County. This study was carried out in the four technical training institutes in Meru County. All the management employees of the technical training institutes were used as the respondents. Descriptive survey was used to collect information with regard to this study and this enabled answering of questions concerning the current status of the research problem. This design helped the researcher to collect data by asking questions using questionnaires. In choosing the members who participated in the study, the researcher focused on the management employees of four technical training institutes in Meru County.Census was used whereby all the elements were included in the study hence a sample size of 74 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistic such frequency and percentages. The SPSS tool version 22 was used by the researcher to analyze data. Multiple linear regression and pearson correlation was also used. It was found that performance appraisal in these technical training institutes has not improved the overall performance of the technical institutes. It is concluded that the performance in technical training institutes is still a challenge and in most cases and as a result it affects the demand of technical training institute's graduates. From the findings, the researcher recommends that the technical institutes' management should conduct seminar and training to the members of staff in order to enhance employees' commitment and improve their organization performance, the technical institute management should ensure that the target setting process is fair and inclusive of employees' views in order to ensure that employees own those targets and strive to achieve them for the benefit of organization performance, the management teams of the technical institutes should pledge their support to the staff and students in order to create a teamwork which will be able to achieve the desired performance for organization improvement and that the technical institute management and board should come up with rewards systems which will be able to motivate staff to work at least hard with dedication which will in tum result to increased performance
Effects of parental alcoholism on students' education in public secondary schools: a case of Kangema sub county, Muranga, Kenya.
No full textABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to find out the effects of parental alcoholism on students' education in public secondary schools in Kangema Sub-County, Murang'a County. The specific objectives were: to find the rate of alcohol prevalence in Kangema Sub-County, to investigate how parental alcoholism influences school attendance of students within the area of study, to find out how parental alcoholism influences students' learning motivation and to find out how parental alcoholism affects students' discipline in public secondary school. This research was guided by the social learning theory .The study employed a descriptive survey study. The total target population was 1877 students. The units of analysis were form three students, Head of Departments for guidance and counseling, and Discipline masters. The study adopted stratified sampling where the Sub-county was divided into three strata's in terms of boarding, day or mixed day/boarding. Simple random sampling was used to select 30%from each stratum. Therefore the sample size included 8 public secondary schools comprising of 245 students, 8 Heads of guidance and counseling departments and 8 Discipline Masters. The instrument for data collection was questionnaires. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, mode, median and standard deviation. The analyzed data was presented by use of tables, diagrams, graphs and charts. From the results of the findings, it was noted that the majority of the students were aware of a relative in their families who abused alcohol. They indicated that alcohol was more prevalent on the fathers as compared to the mothers. Others indicated that they were aware of some parents to their school mates who abused alcohol. The majority of the students recognized the fact that most families had a history of parental alcoholism. On the rating of parental alcoholism in the families, majority of the students felt that the rating was fifty percent. The findings showed that inability to pay school fees in time could have contributed to reduce teacher- student contact hours which affected performance of the children and therefore hindering achievement in their education. Majority of the respondents indicated that parental alcoholism was a major contributor to absenteeism of students from schools either directly or indirectly. Issues of financing education by parents came out conspicuously. It was found out that most parents did not prioritize payment of school fees, provision of personal effects, buying of supplementary books and setting aside out -of- pocket money for their children. This implied that many children ended up being sent away from school due to financial related factors while learning motivation of a majority of students especially those in boarding school was adversely affected. Their levels of concentration decreased and consequently their education was affected. Moreover it was found out that parents delegated a lot of domestic chores to their children especially the day scholars who ended up either being late or missing school altogether or dropping out of school. The research findings led to the conclusion that, alcoholic parents are passively involved in the education of their children in public secondary schools in Kangema Sub-County, Murang'a County-Kenya.
_
Effectiveness of head teacher- parent collaboration for the improvement of inclusive education in public primary schools in meru county
No full textHead teacher parent collaboration plays a crucial role in the improvement of inclusive education. The study was set to analyse the effectiveness of the head teacher-parent collaboration for the improvement of inclusive education in public primary schools, in Meru County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were: to analyse the use of head teacher-parent collaboration context for the improvement of inclusive education; to examine the efficiency of the nature of head teacher-parent collaboration for the improvement of inclusive education and to explore the value of head teacher-parent collaboration inputs for the improvement of inclusive education. The study was guided by Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological systems theory and Peters' input-process-outcome-context framework of Inclusive Education. The study used mixed research approach methods. Descriptive survey and phenomenology research designs, under quantitative and qualitative research approach methods respectively, were used. Qualitative research approach method was predominantly used. The target population was IO 1,612 (772 head teachers, 6,840 teachers and 94,000 parents). Out of the target population, there was a unique target population of 218 (77 head teachers, 68 teachers and 73 parents) who were actively involved in inclusive education in 77 inclusive public primary schools in Meru County. Through purposive and proportionate stratified random sampling, a number of eight (8) regular public primary schools and a sample size of 24 participants were selected from the unique target population. The study instruments used included; questionnaires, interview schedules, focus group discussion guide, observations and documents' analysis schedules. The tools were piloted for reliability and validity in Isiolo County, Kenya. Data was collected by the researcher through meeting with the participants face-to-face, which ensured whole response return rates. Quantitative data was analysed with the assistance of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20, while qualitative data analysis was done with the help of computer package, ATLAS. ti. The study findings were presented using descriptive statistics and narratives within themes generated from the collected data. The findings indicated that head teacher-parent collaboration context (policies, leadership and its structure) enhanced the improvement of inclusive education. Most of the schools used informal policies. The nature (teamwork, communication and cooperation) of head teacher-parent collaboration was inadequate and ineffective for the improvement of inclusive education. Head teacher¬parent collaboration inputs (resources and strategies) were useful but inadequate for the improvement of inclusive education. Head teacher-parent collaboration facilitated the improvement of inclusive education in a remote and insincere manner. Head teacher¬parent collaboration made dismal improvement in inclusive education. It was concluded that, head teacher-parent collaboration is crucial to the improvement of all schools. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education should formulate appropriate inclusive education policies. All schools should practice democratic leadership and ensure that teamwork, communication and cooperation improve in schools. The government and all education stakeholders should provide more resources to improve the effectiveness of head teacher-parent collaboration for the improvement of inclusive education. The Teachers Service Commission should appoint head teachers who are positive about inclusive education and with the ability to work together with all parents to improve inclusive education
Interventions on drug and alcohol abuse among students in secondary schools in Nyeri Central sub county, Nyeri, Kenya.
No full textAlcohol and drugs pose special problems for students. According to Mutumi (2013), the average student who has on~ drink a day earns a GPA at only a C-level, and grades plummet with higher consumption. The purpose of this study was to explore the interventions of alcohol and drug abuse among the students in secondary schools in Nyeri Central Sub-County. The area of study was Nyeri Central Sub-County, Nyeri County. Economic activities in the area of study are both subsistence and small-scale cash crop farming. The study objectives were based on the impact of parents' interventions in drug and alcohol abuse, which guidance and counselling services were offered and the effectiveness of NACADA in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse among secondary school students in Nyeri Central Sub-County. The study adopted the survey design. The study population was drawn from all 18 public secondary schools with a population of 6860 students, 5760 parents, 18 principals,250 teachers and 36 counsellors in the year 2016. The sample size for the parents, teachers and students was 100 in each case. For the selection of student counsellors and principals, the researcher selected 30% of each group. The stratified random sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample from the target population. Each stratum represented a category of respondents. Focus Group Discussions were employed to collect data about the impact of parents' interventions in drug and alcohol abuse, guidance and counselling services offered by teacher counsellors and the effectiveness of NACADA in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse among secondary school students. A pilot survey was conducted in order to ascertain and detect any ambiguities, questions that could not be easily understood or poorly constructed and even those that were irrelevant. The test-retest method was used whereby the same instrument was administered to the same test group in a span of two weeks. The reliability coefficient was 0.79. After seeking a research permit from NACOSTI, the researcher proceeded to the sampled secondary schools. The researcher liaised with the principals in the sampled secondary schools and booked appointments as to when to visit the secondary schools and administer the instruments. The researcher personally distributed the questionnaires and picked them after two weeks completion. On part of the Focus Group Discussions, the researcher randomly selected from the school offices 17 parents from four schools and sixteen from 2 schools totalling to 100. Data were coded and entered into the computer and analyzed with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v23. The study employed descriptive and inferential statistics in analyzing the information. The study found that parents influence drug and alcohol abuse in the 3:rea of study and individual guidance and counselling techniques were scarcely practiced in the area while NACADA hardly visited the area. The researcher recommended that parents in the area of study should be role models to their children to discourage drug and alcohol abuse, counsellor teachers should be encouraged to extensively use . individual counselling which is more effective than group counselling
Effectiveness of C.R.E teaching methods in secondary schools; a case of Kilifi sub-county, Kilifi county, Kenya.
No full textThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of CRE teaching methodology in secondary schools in Kilifi sub-county, Kilifi County, Kenya. The study was carried out in secondary schools in Kilifi sub-county. The study aimed at identifying ways that could make the teaching methodology for CRE in secondary schools effective on learners. This was so because according to the current statistics from the Sub-county quality assurance and standards office, the current prevailing moral degeneration among high school students was affecting their performance in National examination. The study stated the problem; defined the objectives and applied research questions to evaluate the strength and weakness of CRE teaching and learning methods. The scope of the study was in Kilifi sub-county, Kilifi County in the coast region of Kenya. The significance of the study was to provide insights for the ministry of education and other stakeholders on identifying effective methods for teaching and learning of CRE in secondary schools in Kenya. Relevant literature regarding the CRE teaching methodology in secondary schools was reviewed. In reference to the relevant literature, the teaching methods were described and their effectiveness in the teaching of CRE in secondary schools in Kenya. The importance of the subject was exposed so that the ministry of education could consider making compulsory for all students. This study used descriptive design and random sampling method to select the teachers. The data was collected through questionnaires that were administered to the CRE teachers, the students and school administrators. The data was analyzed using SPSS. Finally the results were used to make recommendation on how to establish effective CRE teaching methods in secondary schools in Kenya and conduct refresher courses to teachers on the same. According to the researcher, proper planning for the lesson before starting to teach is of paramount importance if the learners are to acquire the skills and knowledge as it is passed to them by the teacher. The researcher therefore advices the Quality assurance and stands officers in the ministry of education to assess the teachers' often in order to advise them to prepare adequately when teaching C.R.E. Based on the above findings, it was concluded that provision of resource materials influences teaching and learning of C.R.E and also improves the performance