Succession of Principals and its Influence on Students? Discipline in Trans Nzoia County, Kenya

Effective institutional management is critical for the realization of quality education which is necessary for the attainment of national socio-economic development. In Kenya there are secondary schools that have consistently performed well due to good management. It is however noted that during administrative succession, there are likely to be disruptions that may adversely affect the stability in these schools. Successful administrative succession enhances continuity in the service delivery in the affected schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of succession of principals on students discipline in secondary schools in Trans-Nzoia County in Kenya. The objective of the study was to, establish the effect of succession of principals on students discipline. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study was 132 principals, 780 teachers, 300 non-teaching staff, 132 members of the boards of management, 7 representatives from sponsor churches and three quality and assurance officers from the county. Purposive sampling was used to select the 44 principals, 44 members of the boards of management, 7 representatives of the sponsor churches and 3 quality assurance and standards officers. Simple random sampling was used to select 260 teachers and 100 members of the non-teaching staff. A total of four hundred and fifty eight (458) respondents formed the sample for the study. Primary data was collected from the respondents using a questionnaire and interviews while secondary data was obtained from document analysis. The reliability of the research instruments was determined through the Pearsons product moment method using the data obtained during the pilot study. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics used were percentages and frequencies while linear regression analysis was used as an inferential statistics for testing the hypothesis on the effects of succession of principals on students discipline. The findings of the study were that succession of principals in Trans Nzoia County was necessitated by students indiscipline. The findings of the study further indicated that internal succession of principals led to increased students discipline. The study recommended that proper succession management strategies should be put in place to enable enhancement of these positive outcomes. Succession management policies should be properly put in place and supported to avoid any incidences of resistance to succession.