Influence of Safety Standards and Guidelines Implementation on Security Management in Public Boarding Secondary Schools in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

Globally the issue of security is pertinent. There is a current concern on the increasing cases of disasters in secondary schools in Kenya which calls for an urgent need to investigate the schools security systems. The purpose of this study was to look on the influence of safety standards and guidelines implementation of security management in public boarding secondary schools in kitui county. The objectives were: to determine the influence of safety training implementation on security management, to find out the influence of physical infrastructure safety implementation on security management, to establish the influence of student abuse protection implementation on security management, to find out the influence of transportation safety implementation on security management and to establish the influence of safety monitoring and evaluation implementation on security management. The importance of security in schools administration was the rationale and the contribution was the significance of the study. This study was guided by the securitization and disaster management theories. The research adopted mixed methodology approach and the concurrent triangulation design. The target population was 16,875 which included 1,940 teachers and 14,903 students, 16 education officers and 16 senior police officers. The total sample was 650 from 20 stratified sample schools, 240 teachers and 400 students were used. From the education officers and police officers, 5participants were used in each category. Stratified sampling was used to get 5 schools from each of the 8 constituencies; the n random sampling was used to get 20 schools. Principals and deputies were purposively sampled. Teachers and students were randomly sampled while education officers and police officers were purposively sampled. Questionnaires with Likert scales were used for teachers and students. Interview schedules were used for education officers, police officers and an observation checklist was also used. The research instruments were piloted in 2 public boarding secondary schools in the same county which were excluded from the final research sample. In each pilot school, the principal, deputy,10 teachers and 20 form four students participated in the exercise representing 10% of the sample. The researcher asked experts to scrutinize instruments for validity. For reliability, test retest method was used. Cronbach`s coeffiecient Alpha was used to establish the reliability of the tools. Alpha value of 0.800 was achieved and the tools were judged reliable. Concurrent triangulation was used to ensure credibility. An in-depth interview was used to test dependability of qualitative instruments. Quantitative data was analyzed in differential and inferential statistics using tables, frequencies, percentages and chi-square test. Qualitative data was presented through thematic analysis in narrative form. The study established that training on disaster management was insufficient. There was a degree of congestion in the dorms and classes and the visitors were not screened using electronic gadgets. Sexual abuse and corporal punishment existed in schools and students were not protected when travelling between the schools and homes. Students were not using safety belts adequately while on trips. Monitoring and evaluation of safety was not well-organized. It was recommended that the government put in place curriculum for disaster training and schools use modern equipment to screen visitors and the manual should include terrorism safety. Further research was recommended in security in higher institutions of learning.