Effectiveness of the Strategic Planning and Academic Performance among the Public Secondary Schools in Babati District, Tanzania

Abstract

This study sought to establish teachers’ perception on the schools’ effectiveness in the development of the strategic plan, the perception of teachers on how the implementation of the strategic plan affects the academic performance and what should be done to ensure an effective strategic planning. The study used a mixed research approach while employing the convergent parallel design. The study population consisted of 2,844 stakeholders from 5 sampled schools whereby 185 respondents were drawn. The study concluded that there was effectiveness in the development of the Strategic Plan; the implementation of the strategic plan contributed to improved academic performance and various strategies were used by heads of schools to ensure that strategic plans were implemented. The study recommends that to be more effective in developing strategic plans, heads of schools should involve all stakeholders and hire experts to facilitate strategy formulations. Secondly, school heads should educate the school communities about benefits derived from effective implementation of strategic plans so that they can fully be committed to its implementation. Finally, school heads should come up with new strategies that will minimize resistance by school community members so as to speed up adoption as opposed to being pushed all the time by heads of schools in order for them to comply.

Strategic Planning Implementation Practices and School Performance: Evidence from Public Secondary Schools in Tanzania

“…The observed findings support the findings by Kwaslema and Onyango [26] who observed a positive contribution of strategic implementation practices towards improved academic performance among public secondary school students in Babati district. Moreover, Meigaru et al [20] established that, strategic planning implementation practices has a positive influence on students' academic performance.…”

“…This finding supports the empirical work by Meigaru et al [20] who observed that, involvement of tutors in setting goals and operational activities made it easier to scale up and improve students' academic performance in public teacher colleges in Tanzania. Likewise, Kwaslema and Onyango [26] revealed that, strategic implementation practices in terms of teachers' involvement in determination of short-term plans and school activities contributed to enhanced motivation among the school community to work hard as a team and eventually improved students' performance [51]. Furthermore, the above findings were also supported by evidence gleaned from documentary review analysis whose results revealed that, the adoption of strategic implementation practices in the school development planning process had significant influence on students' academic performance.…”

“…Evidence from previous studies reveal a positive influence of strategic planning on organisational performance, see for example, [24,25,3]. Similarly, Kwaslema and Onyango [26] argue that, if well implemented in the school management system, strategic planning can positively influence school performance. Notably, it can lead to successful implementation of strategic decisions which are critical for school performance (Elbanna, Thanos & Colak, 2014) [5].…”

“…Although much literature is available on the influence of strategic planning on organisational performance, only a few studies focused their attention on education sector organisations and public secondary schools in particular. Besides, the available studies such as Meigaru et al [20] and Kwaslema and Onyango [26] assessed the variable school performance in a narrow definition based only on students' achievement indicators. Hence, little evidence is available on the relationship between strategic planning practices and school performance as a multilevel variable assessed at a school organisational level, teacher level and students' achievement level.…”

The Influence of Organizational Strategic Plan Implementation and its Relationship with Secondary School Academic Achievement in Selangor

“…The SEM test found that the relationship between the implementation of the organizational strategic plan and the school's academic achievement was significant at a positive value. The study gave the same findings as Agi (2017); Al-Mawdieh (2020); Ameen (2019); Caputo and Rastelli (2014); Kasan (2013); Ebiziem et al (2021); Ford and Ihrke (2019); Kwaslema and Onyango (2021); Meigaru et al (2019); Meyers and VanGronigen (2019); Meyers and Hitt (2018); Mintrop and MacLellan (2002); Russell and Sharpe (2014); Strunk et al (2016); Waters and Marzano (2006) found that school academic excellence is achieved when the organizational strategic plan is implemented effectively. This is also supported by Bryson et al (2018); Wolf and Floyd (2017); Zakayo (2018) who explained that the organizational strategic plan influences and has a positive impact on school academic achievement.…”