Determinants of effective implementation of strategic plans in Secondary Schools in Kenya: A study of Vihiga County

Abstract

Strategic planning has been employed in schools as a transformative tool to re-engineer institutions of learning resulting into improved performance. However, in Vihiga County, since introduction of Free Day Secondary Education most schools have experienced average performance lower than 4.3963 in national examination as a result of shortage of teachers and overstretched facilities, yet, little has been done to explore determinants of implementation of strategic plan in secondary schools in Vihiga County, Kenya. Therefore, the general objective of this study was to look into determinants of effective implementation of strategic plans in secondary schools in Vihiga County, Kenya. The specific objectives were to establish the influence of institutional culture strategy on implementation of strategic plans in secondary schools in Kenya, to determine the influence of institutional leadership in the implementation of strategic plans in secondary schools in Kenya, to establish the influence of human resource training strategies on implementation of strategic plan in secondary schools in Kenya and finally it identified the challenges facing implementation of strategic plans in secondary schools in Kenya. Effective schools model theory by Edmonds and resource based theory guided the study. The study employed pragmatic research paradigm as a philosophy on which it was anchored. It adopted mixed method as a research design utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. The study adopted mixed method descriptive cross sectional survey research design. The study population included one County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer, 150 Principals of secondary schools, 180 Deputy Principals and 500 Heads of Department. A pilot study of 10% of the sample size was conducted to improve on validity and reliability of the instruments. Proportionate sampling of 50 percent of study population was adopted and simple random sampling used to select 75 secondary schools. Subsequently, purposive sampling was used to select 75 principals, 90 deputy principals and 250 heads of departments in the schools, and one County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer. Questionnaire, interview schedule and document analysis guide were used to collect data. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mode, standard deviation and multiple regression analysis while content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data by classifying opinions into main emerging themes, categorizing and coding the categories and assigning them numerical values. The study established that institutional culture (β=.766, p<.05), quality of institutional leadership (β=.209, p<.05) and Training of human resource (β=.152, p<.05) had significant influence on effective implementation of strategic plan, with the regression model Y= 0.766X1 + 0.209X2 + 0.152X3 accounting for 64% of variations in effective implementation of strategic plan. The study concludes that institutional culture, human resource training and quality of institutional leadership were determinants of effective implementation of strategic plan. The study recommends frequent training for school administrators and development of internal policies and procedures to resolve conflicting roles between heads of departments and heads of subjects in administrative structure. The study is useful for improving strategic plan implementation in secondary schools in Kenya and can be used to help other stakeholders and the ministry of education in implementation of strategic plan