Influece of school based incentives for teachers on students academic achievement in public secondary schools in Kisumu west sub county, Kenya

Abstract

The achievement of students in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education has varied from school to school over time. This is in disregard to the fact that the Government has been according teachers similar training in colleges and universities on one hand and pays them similar amount of package corresponding with their scales, on the other hand. In the year 2015, the difference between the mean of the top school and the last school in Kisumu West Sub County was 6.66, in 2016 it was 8.64 and in 2017 it was 8.39. In Kisumu Central and Kisumu East Sub Counties, the difference in the year 2017 was 5.988 and 2.685 respectively. This disparity raises concerns among the education stakeholders on the incentive underlying teacher input. Motivation theorists believe that performance is a result of concerted effort which has been induced by some incentive. Preliminary survey in 2017 reveal that all schools subject their teachers to incentives. The purpose of this study was therefore to establish school-based incentives for teachers and their influence on students academic achievement in public secondary schools in Kisumu West Sub County. The objectives of the study were; to determine the influence of monetary, intangible non-monetary incentives for teachers and of tangible non-monetary incentives for teachers on the achievement of students in public secondary schools in Kisumu West Sub County. A conceptual framework was used to guide the study. The study adopted descriptive survey and correlation research designs. The target population consisted of 30 public secondary schools with 354 teachers, 30 Principals and 5 Curriculum Support Officers. Through Yamane’s formula, 187 teachers, 27 Principals and 4 CSOs were selected as the study sample. Simple random sampling was used to get the teachers while purposive sampling was used to get the principals and CSOs for the study. Questionnaire were used to collect data from teachers and principals, while interview schedule was used to collect data from CSOs. Face validity of instruments was ascertained by experts in the Department of Educational Management and Foundations. Reliability of instruments were determined through test-re-test method, with the coefficient r=0.784 considered acceptable. Qualitative data obtained from interviews and document analysis was analyzed through thematic analysis. Quantitative data from questionnaire was analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlations. The study found that monetary incentives for teachers is positively and moderately related to students academic achievement (r= +0.36, p<0.001), tangible non-monetary incentives are positively and strongly related students academic achievement (r= +0.805, p<0.001) while intangible non-monetary incentives for teachers have no significant relationship with students academic achievement (r= +0.002, p=0.454). The study concludes that tangible non-monetary incentives motivate teachers significantly hence high influence on students academic achievement, monetary incentives for teachers influence students academic achievement moderately while intangible non-monetary incentives have no significant influence on teacher motivation and students academic achievement in public secondary schools in Kisumu West. This study may be useful to school managements and administrators designing teacher motivational activities.