Title:
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BOARDS OF MANAGEMENT MEMBERS' PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NYANDARUA NORTH SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Authors:
*Kariuki Muthee Stanley ,Dr. Peter Githae Kaboro and Dr. Margaret Njeri Ngugi ,Kenya

Abstract:
The ministry of education (moe) in kenya has provided operational guidelines to basic educational institutions' boards of management (boms)through an act of parliament in order to achieve school and hence national educational aspirations. The attainment of the aspirations, however, is hindered by inappropriate composition of boms in terms of predisposition of members of the boards. This study sought to establish whether there is a relationship between selected personal and professional characteristics of bom members and their effectiveness in management of public secondary schoolsin nyandarua north sub-county, kenya. The selected characteristics included members' level of formal education, years of experience in management, level of training in management and their age. The study was anchored on contingency theory of management. Using an ex-post facto research design, data was collected from 30 principals and 90 heads of departments (hods). 28 public secondary schools were selected to participate in the study using proportionate and simple random sampling. All principals and three hods from each of the selected schools took part in the study. Two sets of questionnaires were used in data collection, one for principals and the other one for hods. Data were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially with hypotheses being tested at an alpha level of .05 using pearson's productmoment correlation coefficient. Analysis was done with the help of the statistical package for social sciences (spss) computer programme version 24.0.Findings revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between bom members' level of formal education, experience in management and level of training with effectiveness in management but not with their age. The study therefore concluded that bom members' effectiveness in management of public secondary schools is contingent upon members' level of formal education, experience in management and level of training in management but not age. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the government through the respective county directors of education (cdes) considers the level of education, experience in management and training of bom members before their appointment.