Pupils Governing Councils And Their Influence On Governance In Public Primary Schools In Nairobi County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to enhance school governance, the Ministry of Education introduced Pupils Governing Council (PGC) guidelines which require primary school children to form pupils’ councils. This has seen some schools over the last few years enhance their governance. However, formation and operations of these councils have been under the mark whereby studies show that few schools still are experiencing governance challenges. The purpose of the study was to find out how public primary school in Nairobi County have implemented and complied with PGC guidelines to bring about better school governance practices. The study’s objectives were; To find out the extent to which primary schools comply with the practices of democratic participation to influence governance in Nairobi County, To find out the duties of the PGC to influence governance, To determine the role of the stakeholders in the PGC to influence governance, To establish the facilitating and hindering factors to PGC functionality and the influence on governance. Significantly, the study findings may help schools comply with the PGC guidelines as required and provide policymakers with research-based evidence to enhance learner participation in governance. To ground the study the Social Change Model of Leadership was used under the theoretical framework. Descriptive survey design was adopted. The target population was 28454 people in 197 public primary schools comprising of the 197 head teachers, 197 teachers in charge of CG, 11 SCDE, 1970 CG elected leaders and 26079 standard seven pupils. 20% of the schools were used. By taking15% of the standard 7 pupils in the sampled schools, and 20% of head teachers, teacher in charge of the Council and Council leaders the sample size was 939 stratified into 39 head teachers, 39 teachers in charge of CG, 78 Council leaders, 11 SCDE and 772 standard seven pupils. Cluster and purposive sampling ensured respondents representativeness. For Council leaders and standard seven pupils, simple random sampling and convenience sampling were used respectively. Piloting was done to determine whether the instruments can gather the intended data. To determine validity the researcher ensured representative sample groups and asked interview questions in an inverse format. Self-administered questionnaires were used as the main tool to collect data supported by interviews and focus group discussions. Qualitative data was coded and text analysed thematically while quantitative data analysed by use of descriptive statistics. Tables, bar graphs and pie charts with text were used in data presentation. The study found out that many school have complied with the PGC guidelines on democratic participation practices and pupils are well involved in governance. In conclusion, PGC are relevant to the daily life of learners for they enhance life and leadership skills. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should include PGC activities in the calendar of events and teachers to take these activities more seriously.