ASSESSMENT OF KENYA EDUCATION MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE TRAINING ON PRINCIPALS’ FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SKILLS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KAKAMEGA SOUTH SUB- COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The government of Kenya through the Ministry of Education has been conducting educational management training for all the principals of public secondary schools in Kenya at Kenya Education Management Institute since the year 2012. This course was intended to enhance their skills in management. However, in Kakamega South Sub County, it was not possible to ascertain the kind of change this training has brought on the financial management skills of the principals for the period 2015 to 2020. The purpose of the study was to assess the change brought about by the Kenya Educational Management Institute training on the financial management skills of the principals of the public secondary schools in Kakamega South Sub County for the period 2015 to 2020.The study was guided by the survey research design. The study population comprised of 31 principals, 31 accounts clerks and the TSC County Director of Education. The simple random sampling techniques was used to select the sample which was 29 principals and 29 account clerks. The research instruments comprised of two questionnaire sets which were administered to the principals and the school account clerks, . The data was analyzed by applying both the descriptive and inferential analysis techniques. The descriptive statistics comprised of; percentages, frequencies and the means while the inferential statistics involved testing the null hypotheses by applying the Chi-square and the one way ANOVA analyses techniques. The findings revealed that after the training, the principals of the public secondary school in the Sub-County improved in projection completion rates from a mean of 53.10% in 2015 to 82.9% in 2020. The findings further revealed that the repayment of the school debts improved from 59.41% in 2015 to 84.48% in 2020. In regard to compliance to the approved accounting procedures, the study revealed that principals improved from 51.7% in 2015 to 100% in 2020.In conclusion, the educational management training generally improved the financial management skills of the principals of the public secondary schools in Kakamega South Sub-County. In view of the foregoing conclusion, it was recommended that the current KEMI management training for the secondary school principals be retained but be offered on a more regular basis as a refresher course, so as to thoroughly inculcate the requisite management skills in the school managers