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