The effectiveness of board of governors in curriculum implementation in secondary schools in keiyo district, Kenya

Abstract

Management of schools in Kenya has never been the sole function of the school heads and teachers per see but the Board of Governors have been legally mandated by the Ministry of Education under the Education Act Cap 211 with overall management of secondary schools and colleges. Their immediate roles have not been defined in the laws and there are no standards that have been adopted to mete their outputs in schools. This study aimed at determining the outputs of the BOGs in curriculum implementation in secondary schools in Keiyo District. Specifically, the study explored the effects of types of training undergone by the BOGs and their roles on staff development in relation to curriculum implementation. Further the study established the effects of support provision by BOGs to acquire resources and the BOG discipline policy on effective implementation of the curriculum in schools in Keiyo District. The entire study was propounded on the basis of learning theory postulated by Fiedler (1987). This study was conducted by survey design. Data were collected from a sample of 15 schools among 15 head teachers, 70 teachers and 65 BOG members using stratified, purposive and simple random sampling. The instruments of data collection were interviews, questionnaires and document analysis. Data collected were coded in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and analysed by descriptive statistics, frequency distributions and chi-square tests. Results indicated that training of the members of the BOG was directly related to the implementation of the curriculum with those having higher training being able to effectively assist the school in implementing the curriculum. The BOG members supported the schools to acquire physical resources that eventually helped the school in achieving proper implementation initiatives. Findings from this study have aptly demonstrated that members of the school BOG are an important component in the management of the schools and cannot, therefore, be simply ignored in the managerial efficiency of the schools. BOG have proved to be important in enhancing curriculum development in schools hence the study recommends that schools should strive to provide pre-requisite training to the BOG members