THE INFLUENCE OF SELECTED SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS ON PRINCIPALS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL BASED TEACHER RECRUITMENT POLICY IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NYANDARUA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

ABSTRACT The adoption of school based teacher recruitment (SBTR) policy in education in Kenya has empowered school boards to employ teachers in public secondary schools. The demand-driven teacher recruitment program which was initiated in 2001 brought to an end the supply-driven approach which had been in place since 1967. However, The SBTR policy has faced many challenges. Some of the often cited challenges include, the tendency to favour some schools thereby understaffing others and turnover of SBTR policy teacher beneficiaries. Therefore there is a need to investigate the effectiveness of the school based teacher recruitment policy as perceived by principals because they (principals) are the key implementers of the policy in their respective schools. The study adopted expostfacto research design. Using stratified random sampling the researcher sampled 80 principals out of the target population of 103 principals. The validity of the instrument was assessed by experts in the Department of Curriculum and Education management at Laikipia University to evaluate the relevance of each item in the instrument to the objectives targeted by the study. Reliability was tested by subjecting the instrument to a pilot study involving 3 schools purposively selected in Laikipia County from each of schools. The instruments’ reliability coefficient as established using cronbach’s alpha was .89. Using a selfdelivered questionnaire, data were collected from 80 principals in public secondary schools in Nyandarua County, Kenya. Nominal data was analysed through percentages and frequencies while hypotheses were tested using t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at .05 alpha level. Qualitative data was analysed for content as themes and sub-themes emerged.The study found that SBTR policy is not generating the expected impact in high STR schools, rural schools, smaller and large schools. The policy was generating the expected impact in schools that had high levels of community support.The study revealed that the recruitment practice was fairly efficient. The study recommended thatthepolicy be reviewed from time to time to enable it to address the emerging issues. The findings of this study generated information that may improve school based teacher recruitment policy in Kenya. It will, in addition, provoke other researchers to carry out more studies in this critical area of teacher management in Kenya.