Effectiveness of teacher performance appraisal and development on service delivery in public secondary Schools in Embu county, Kenya

Abstract

Teacher performance appraisal and development is a very important human resource function in the teaching profession because it assesses the quality of service delivery. This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of teacher performance appraisal and development system on service delivery in public secondary schools in Embu County, Kenya. The objectives of this study were: to establish the effectiveness of principals’ professional knowledge of TPAD, to investigate the effectiveness of principals’ support for TPAD, to establish the effectiveness of teachers’ perception of TPAD and to investigate the impact of teachers’ performance feedback on service delivery in public secondary schools in Embu County. Descriptive survey study design was used in this research. There was a total of 384 respondents comprising of 26 principals, 356 teachers and 2 TSC Sub-County Directors. The study was grounded in the Goal Setting Theory and the Balanced Score Card framework theory. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. To ensure validity of the research instruments, the researcher subjected the questionnaire items to the expert evaluation by the researcher’s supervisors who were experts in the field of education. To check on the reliability of the questionnaires, they were administered twice to a select sample of respondents after a time interval of two weeks. The test respondents were not part of the main sample size respondents of the study. Piloting of the study was done in Mbeere South Sub County where two schools were randomly selected. Reliability of the instruments was tested using Cronbach’s Alpha where the instruments were found to be reliable for the study. Data collected from the study was analysed through quantitative and qualitative methods by the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26 and presented in frequencies and percentages. The results obtained showed significant relationship of teacher performance appraisal and development on service delivery in public secondary schools in Embu County, Kenya. The study concluded that if the principals increased the effectiveness of teacher performance appraisal and development, the impact on service delivery would be highly impressive. The findings of this study can be of great significance to the key players in the education sector especially the teachers, principals, Teachers Service Commission and the Ministry of Education on the service delivery. Through the findings, the Teachers Service Commission can establish the effectiveness of the TPAD tool in promoting service delivery, thus informing the Commission on the necessary adjustments to make in the appraisal metrics. Further, the findings can inform the principals on how to effectively conduct teacher appraisal using the TPAD tool. The teachers will be informed of their strengths and weaknesses while the Ministry of education can establish the level of service delivery in its educational institutions against policies that have been developed from time to time.