Influence of Principals' Management Competencies on Students' Discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Homa Bay County, Kenya

Dr. Beatrice Atieno Nyakan

Competencies, Discipline, Influence, Management.

Discipline is a prerequisite to effective and efficient functioning of schools and achievement of their objectives.  Despite this, maintaining discipline in secondary schools in Homa Bay countyhas been a challenge. Principals’ management competencies are among factors that have been associated with students’ discipline. This paper examined the influence of principals’ management competencies on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Homa bay county, Kenya. The study adopted the descriptive research design. Purposive, stratified, proportionateand simple random sampling techniques were utilized to select a sample of 171 Principals, and 267 Heads of Departments (HOD) who participated in the study. Data was collected using Principals’ and HODs’ questionnaires. The content and face validity of the two instruments were established through expert judgment. The principals’ and HODs’ questionnaires were also piloted for reliability, and yielded coefficients of 0.76 and 0.81 respectively. Data was analysed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Qualitative data were transcribed and reported thematically. Influence of principals’ management competencies on discipline was established using the Spearman’s Correlations. The study established that the level of students discipline was low and principals’ management competencies significantly influenced it. The study recommends that principals’ management skills be regularly upgraded through training and collaborative decision making that involves all stakeholders be adopted to enhance discipline.

https://doi.org/10.31871/IJNTR.7.7.5