AN ANALYSIS OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SCHOOL MANAGER’S PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CAPACITY AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT POLICY IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NYERI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

School managers in Public primary schools in Kenya are required to implement the human resource policy through enhancement of continuous teachers’ professional development. However, the implementation is shallow due to inadequacy in school management capacity. Profession development for teachers remains a key aspect of the human resource development policy. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between school manager’s professional development capacity and the implementation of the human resource development policy in public primary schools in Nyeri County. Two theories namely, the behavioral theory of management and the policy formulation and implementation theories were adopted to guide the study. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected using the survey and in-depth interviews methods respectively. The concurrent triangulation design was used throughout the data collection period and during the analysis of both the qualitative and quantitative data. The target population of the study consisted of four hundred (400) headteachers, one thousand six hundred (1600) teachers, four hundred (400) chairpersons of public primary schools board of management and eight (8) sub county TSC human resource officers. Stratified Random Sampling was applied to come up with a sample size of fifty (50) head teachers, one hundred and sixty (160) teachers and fifty (50) board of management chairpersons in public primary schools. All the Eight (8) Sub County TSC Human Resource Officers were purposively selected. The independent variable was school manager’s professional development capacity while the dependent variable was the implementation of the human resource development policy in public primary schools. The questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from head teachers and teachers in the selected public primary schools. Interview schedules were used to collect qualitative data from chairpersons of the schools’ board of management and from the sub county TSC human resource officers. Piloting of instruments was done prior to the final collecting of data to enhance validity. Credibility was enhanced through the adjustments of the tools according to the opinions given by respondents during the piloting phase and the guidance from supervisors. Interactive questioning was used to enhance dependability. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The Chi square was applied for analysis of inferential statistics using SPSS program version 24. Qualitative data was compared with quantitative data at the final analysis. The reporting of the quantitative data included percentages, tables and charts while qualitative data was by the Chi square values, inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that there is a conducive environment for teachers to work in. However, teachers are not regularly taken for seminars and workshops thereby hindering their professional development. The researcher recommended that headteachers of public primary schools should be properly trained on professional development of teachers. Additionally, the school managers should have a reduced workload and adequate finances to enable them to carry out the teacher’s professional development role effectively.

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