Effectiveness of Sponsor Churches in Enhancement of Students' Academic Performance in Public Mixed Day Secondary Schools in Bondo Sub – County, Kenya

Abstract

The desire to have academic achievement for all Kenyan children is one of the objectives of Education, and Stakeholders in education such as principals, deputy principals, sponsor churches of schools, parents, Ministry of Education, Teachers Service Commission and Board of Management play a key role towards the achievement of this objective. The government of Kenya provides trained teachers, allocates financial resources, has established Quality Assurance Directorate and facilitates in-service training for principals and teachers. However, with all these measures in place, students in Public Mixed Day secondary schools' performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education has remained low for the last five years with corresponding mean scores as follows:2014-5.179; 2015-5.064 and 2016-4.6033;20167-4.766;2018-3.398.  The study is therefore aimed at finding out the effectiveness of Sponsor Churches in enhancement of students' academic performance in Public Mixed day secondary schools in Bondo Sub-County. This study was guided by Combs (1970) educational planning theory on social demand and Manpower approach together with a conceptual framework. The study used mixed method approach and specifically concurrent triangulation research design. The study population was 38 principals, 38 Deputy Principals, 38 Director of studies, 38 Board of Management chairmen, 38Parents Association chairmen, 1 Sub County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer,1 Sub-County Teachers Service Commission officer and 3Sponsor church education secretaries giving a total of 195 respondents. Saturated sampling technique was used to select 38 principals, 38 Deputy Principals, 38Director of studies, 38 Board of Management chairmen, 38Parents Association chairmen, 1 Sub County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer and 3 Sponsor church education secretaries.  Data was collected by administering questionnaires and interview schedules. To ensure validity of the research instruments, experts from the department of educational management and foundations were consulted and their input incorporated in the final document.  Reliability of the instruments was determined by piloting the instruments in 3 Public Mixed Day secondary schools which constituted more than 10% of the study population. Data collected by questionnaires were analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of percentages; means, frequency counts and Pearson correlation coefficient while qualitative data from interviews and open-ended questions were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Data obtained from document analysis were analysed using content analysis in form of tables.  Findings of this study may be significant to education managers in improving standards of students education, help educational policy makers come up with policies that may enhance students' academic performance in Public Mixed Day secondary schools, and make parents effective t in provision of learning resources and sponsors may also benefit by being effective in enhancing students' academic performance in Public Mixed Day secondary schools. Conclusion, recommendations and concerns for further research were made in light of the findings of the study.