PARTICIPATION OF STUDENT COUNCILS IN ENHANCING EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NYERI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

School management is the exercise of power and authority to achieve set educational goals. In secondary schools, the students play a crucial role through the student leaders in complementing the school administration to enhance effective management. However following persistent student unrest in secondary schools in Kenya the Ministry of Education (MOE) reformed the student leadership from prefects who are appointed by teachers to student councils that are democratically elected by students. The study was conducted in Nyeri County of Kenya. It adopted a casualcomparative research design. The study was conducted in 24 boys and girls public boarding secondary schools that were identified using purposive sampling. The target population was 10,387 subjects that comprised of members of the student council, teachers, students and deputy principals. Using a purposive sampling technique 192 members of the student council was sampled to participate in the study. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 144 Form Three students in public boarding secondary schools to participate in the study. Using a purposive sampling technique 24 Form Three class teacher and 24 deputy principals were sampled to participate in the study. To ascertain reliability the instruments were pilot tested in two non coeducational public boarding secondary schools in Kirinyaga County. The reliability coefficient was estimated using Cronbach coefficient alpha. A coefficient value of 0.865 and was obtained from all research instruments. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 for Windows. Hypotheses were tested using t-test and multiple regression (r 2 ) statistics at α = 0.05significance level. The study established that the student councils enhance effective management of non co-educational secondary schools in coordinating student activities