The Influence of Teaching Staff Training and Development on Academic Performance of Secondary Schools in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Academic performance trend in K.C.S.E. in Machakos County has been on a declining trend in the recent past, hence the need for the study. The study sought to examine the influence of teaching staff training and development on the academic performance of secondary schools in Machakos County, Kenya. The Universalistic Theory informed this study. The study was anchored on pragmatic paradigm and used mixed methods research design. The target population was 413 secondary schools in Machakos County. The school principals were selected as units of observation. Purposive sampling was used to select six secondary schools from where the key informants were drawn. These consisted of the two national, top two performing and bottom two non-performing secondary schools in Machakos County. The rest of the schools were selected using stratified sampling based on the category of school where a sample size of 201 was obtained. The study used primary data collected using self-administered questionnaires and interview schedules. Qualitative data collected was analysed using content analysis, while for the quantitative data, descriptive analysis and inferential analysis were carried out. Both bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between the study variables. The findings of the study were that teaching staff training and development positively and significantly influenced the academic performance of secondary schools in Machakos County. Therefore, the study concluded that training and development was a significant variable that influenced the academic performance of secondary schools in Machakos County. The study recommends that schools' management should also develop operational policies to guide the design of their training and career development programs to make them more inclusive, relevant and comprehensive.