Impact of Principals’ Leadership in ICT Integration in Public Secondary Schools Management in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

In this 21^st century, there has been great focus on Information Communication Technology (ICT) integration in educational institutions aimed at realigning operations for global competitiveness and enhanced service delivery. The government of Kenya, through the National ICT Policy and strategic plan of 2006, set strategies and invested in ICT with the objective of integrating ICT in educational institutions. In Public Secondary Schools (PSS), principals’ leadership was relied upon to oversee integration. However the impact is way below expectations due to financial constraints, unavailability and inadequacy of ICT equipment and lack of training. The purpose of this study was to assess principals’ leadership in ICT integration in Public Secondary Schools Management (PSSM) in Bungoma County, Kenya. Objective of the study was to assess the impact of principals’ leadership in ICT integration in PSSM in Bungoma County. This study adopted Hasan (1998) Activity Theory in which whole work activity is broken into subject (person studied), tool (mediating device) and object (intended activity). Descriptive survey design was employed. Study population was 272 Principals and 272 Deputy Principals (DPs) from PSS. Simple random and saturated sampling techniques were utilized to select 82 principals and 245 DPs respectively. Instruments of data collection were Interview schedules, questionnaire, Observation Checklist and Document Analysis Guide. Validity was ascertained by revising the instruments based on feedback from experts in the School of Education, Maseno University. A pilot study was conducted among 27(10%) principals and 27(10%) DPs using test re-test method and this yielded reliability of .74 for DPs’ questionnaire which was above .70 threshold and therefore acceptable. Quantitative data were analyzed and presented in terms of frequencies and percentages while qualitative data from interview schedules, open ended questionnaires, Observation Checklist and Document analysis guide were analyzed thematically. The study revealed high impact on effective registration of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Schools (KCSE) candidates and time management, moderate impact on improved communication with stakeholders, provision of easier environment in record preparation while majority rated enhanced financial accountability no impact. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education (MOE) should increase its budgetary allocation to improve on availability and adequacy of ICT equipment and mount an in-service program on financial automated management systems for principals’ to enhance knowledge and skills in ICT integration.

Keywords: Impact, Principals, leadership, Integration, ICT, Public Secondary Schools, Management