Discipline management strategies, demographic characteristics and institutional performance of public secondary schools in upper eastern region, kenya

Abstract

The performance of educational institutions continues to be a cause of concern to stakeholders due to the significant role they play to the individual learner, the community and the nation in general. In Kenya, indiscipline in public secondary schools has been reported with some leading to violent riots that not only disrupt learning but also cause damage to property and ultimately compromise the overall school performance. The significance of discipline management strategies and their contribution in the performance of institutions has necessitated studies illustrating this relationship. However, up to 2022, existing literature continues to limit this discourse on the relationship between discipline management and students’ academic performance in disregard of other performance attributes such as performance in cocurricular activities. This study sought to determine the relationship between discipline management strategies, demographic characteristics and the performance of public secondary schools in Upper Eastern region, Kenya as a contribution in bridging the existing knowledge gap. It sought to determine the relationship between corrective, preventive and punitive discipline management measures and institutional performance. It also sought to establish the influence of Principals’ personal characteristics as well as the effect of institutional characteristics in the relationship between their discipline management strategies and institutional performance. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and correlational design with mixed methods approach that used both qualitative and quantitative methods. Respondents were 314 persons out of 317 sampled from 1521 Principals, Senior teachers and County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (CQASOs) drawn from the 3 counties in the Upper Eastern region, Kenya using multistage sampling consisting of purposive, stratified and simple random sampling. They responded to questionnaires and interview schedules. Validity of the instruments was ascertained through face, content and construct validity techniques while reliability was determined using Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient from the pilot study carried out in Kirinyaga County. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically while quantitative data was cleaned, coded and analyzed descriptively and inferentially with the aid of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27. Frequency, and percentages as well as mean and standard deviation were used to describe the existing relationship between study variables while hypothesis was tested using logistic regression at 0.05 level of significance. The study findings will be useful to the Ministry of Education and Teachers Service Commission for policy formulation as well as schools’ Board of Management Principals and even students in the management of discipline. The study established that corrective as well as preventive discipline management strategies positively and significantly related to institutional performance. Punitive discipline management strategies however showed no significant relationship with institutional performance. Further, the study established that a principal’s teaching experience, experience as a principal, the type of school as well as school category by residential positively and significantly influences the relationship between discipline management strategies and institutional performance. It is therefore recommended that the use of corrective and preventive discipline management strategies be enhanced for better institutional performance while that of punitive strategies be minimized.