Principals’ Human Resource Management Practices and Academic Achievement in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma East Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The role of the school principal is to provide a school environment that promotes academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between principals’ human resource management practices and academic achievement in public secondary schools. Embedded mixed method research design was adopted for the study. The target population comprised principals, deputy principals and heads of department drawn from Bungoma East Sub-County in western Kenya. In a total of 33 schools, 33 principals and 33 deputy principals were automatically included in the study while 114 heads of department were selected through random sampling as respondents for the study. Data was collected using interview schedule administered to the principals while questionnaires were administered to deputy principals and heads of department. Data on academic achievement was collected using document analysis. A pilot study was done in three schools before the main study to establish validity and reliability of the research tools. A correlation test was done between the principals’ human resource management practices and academic achievement in public secondary schools. A strong positive relationship was found between the principals’ human resource management practices and academic achievement in public secondary schools. It was thus concluded principals’ human resource management practices affect students’ academic performance. The study recommends that school principals should employ effective human resource management practices such as competitive recruitment, professional development of staff, rewarding and staff welfare programmes.

Principals’ Educational Resource Management and Teachers’ Job Performance in Private Secondary Schools in Delta State, Nigeria

“…The result from the responses of the teachers indicated that principals' financial resource management practices had a moderate and positive relationship with teachers' job performance in private secondary schools in Delta State. This finding differs from the position of the study carried out by Wanjala et al, (2020) which showed that there was a strong positive relationship between the financial management practices of principals and academic achievement in public secondary schools. It was also established that principals' financial resource management practices significantly predicted teachers' job performance in private secondary schools in Delta State.…”

“…This finding also lightly agrees with the outcome of the study by Wanjala et al, (2020) which revealed that a strong positive relationship existed between principals' financial management practices and achievement of students. It was indicated that principals who had high scores on financial management practices recorded high academic mean scores in their schools.…”

“…The study also showed that financial managerial practices played a major role in the infrastructural and academic development of the sampled schools. The difference between both studies is that this study showed a moderate relationship between the financial management practices of the principals and teachers' job performance while the study by Wanjala et al, (2020) indicated that principals' financial management practices can have a high influence on the activities of school personnel. This tends to suggest that the principals can have different results in their financial management processes depending on how they handle this issue and this can have different implications on the educational goals and objectives being pursued in the school.…”

“…Education laws also have a significant impact on principals' financial record-keeping practices of secondary schools in Nasarawa State. Similarly, Wanjala et al, (2020) conducted a study on the effect of principals' financial management practices on academic achievement in public secondary schools in Bungoma East Sub-County, Kenya. The study discovered a strong positive relationship between the financial management practices of principals and academic achievement in public secondary schools.…”

Relationship between Principals’ Competencies in Procurement and Performance of Financial Management Roles in Public Secondary Schools in Kajiado County, Kenya

“…Public secondary schools, through their Board of Management (BoM) in Kenya have autonomy to decide what to spend in the budget, what and how procurement of goods, works or services will be done (Wanjala, Wamocha and Sang, 2020). Principals have to establish measures that will help them succeed in procurement.…”