Analytical Study on Factors Influencing School-Based-Teacher-Evaluation Practice in Secondary Schools in Seleted Districts of Western Province, Kenya

Abstract

Education commissions in Kenya starting with the Report of the Commission of the Presidential Working Party on Education and Manpower Training for the Next Decade and Beyond of 1988 studies have persistently recommended for the need to establish the practice of SBTE in secondary schools as a remedy to the inadequate and ineffective role of the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards in Education (DQASE). Recommendations made by the commissions to the effect that SBTE practice be established in secondary schools in Kenya and yet it is supposed to be an on-going practice led to the conclusion that there was a problem with the practice. It was in view of this that this study analyzed factors influencing SBTE practice in secondary schools in the selected districts of Western Province, Kenya with the purpose of providing explanations and suggestions solutions on issues surrounding it. A survey study design was used because of the type of information collected and also because of the large target population of the study. The study was conducted in three districts of Western Province, Kenya, namely, Bungoma, Butere/Mumias and Vihiga. Thirty-seven out of 282 schools were sampled for the study. The target population was 3826 subjects while the sample size was 514. Data was collected using headteachers, senior teachers, selected heads of departments and selected teachers. Stratified, purposive, simple and systematic random sampling procedures were used to select the districts, schools and respondents. A questionnaire, two different interview schedules and document analysis guides were used to collect the information. Validation of the research instruments was partly based on a pilot study conducted in two schools not involved in the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis approaches were used. The data was analyzed manually according to themes derived from the specific objectives of the study. The findings were discussed and presented through descriptive tables. The main findings of the study were: there were no awareness programmes especially with regards to the analysis of professional tools; less than half of the respondents had received some in-service training course; there were no proper strategies laid down for the institutionalization of SBTE and observation of teachers during instruction is done in very few schools. Understaffing especially in district schools, failure by head-teachers to initiate and enforce observation of teachers during instruction, lack of funds by most of the schools, lack of knowhow and lack of a clear government policy especially with regards to peer teacher evaluation were some of the factors militating against SBTE practice. There was no mutual understanding by the respondents about the purpose of SBTE and the role of the DQASE in SBTE practice. The following recommendations were made: headteachers to take a leading role in SBTE practice; in-service training courses targeting all teachers to be conducted; schools to be staffed with enough teachers; need for a clear government policy about the purpose and practice of especially peer teacher evaluation; the Ministry of Education through the DQASE to be more involved in SBTE practice