The Contribution of Principals ‘Strategic Planning Skills on Management of Student Discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Bomet County, Kenya

Abstract

One of the major roles of education is to instil discipline in students. Therefore, in any educational institution, training of discipline is incorporated into all the instructional and managerial processes. Kenya has witnessed numerous indiscipline cases among secondary school students in the recent past. These indiscipline cases include boycotting of lessons, dishonesty, disobedience to teachers, prefects and school administration, drugs and substance abuse, violence against fellow students and staff, and arson attacks. The purpose of this research was to investigate the Contribution of Principals ‘Strategic Planning Skills on Management of Student Discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Bomet County, Kenya. The study was guided by human Capital Theory. Descriptive survey design was used in this research. The target population was 572, comprising of 5 Sub-County Education Directors, 189 principals and 189 deputy principals and 189 senior teachers. A sample size of 239 respondents, comprising of 78 principals, 78 deputy principals and 78 senior teachers proportionally distributed and all the 5 Sub-County Education Directors, was obtained using Yamane’s formula. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling was used to select respondents. The research instruments for this study were structured questionnaire and an interview schedule. A pilot study was carried out in Kericho County to ascertain the validity and reliability of the research instruments. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used. Interview data was subjected to content analysis to gain insight into the meanings and consequences of the participants’ responses. For this research, SPSS version 24 was used to code and analyse quantitative data by generating descriptive statistics. The study findings revealed that principals’ strategic planning skills had a positive and significant effect on the management of student discipline in public secondary schools (β2=0.247, p=0.000). The study further concludes that school principals are able to devise possible solutions to students’ discipline issues. Furthermore, they always evaluate the chosen options for dealing with students’ discipline issues. Additionally, the principal soldierly brainstorming sessions to maximize teachers and students’ creativity in problem-solving. Further, time management has helped school principals to stay organized during each stage of the decision-making process concerning student discipline. The researcher recommended that school principals should apply problem-solving skills when dealing with student discipline issues. More importantly, students should be involved in problem solving to reduce their engagement in indiscipline in the first place.