Challenges in Management of Pupils Discipline in Public Primary Schools of Imenti South Sub County, Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

Management is a system of working with individuals for the purpose of achieving the required goal, mission or strategic objectives of an organization. Management is widely acknowledged to be essential for creating a peaceful school climate thus leading to sound academic performance. Management of pupils discipline in primary schools remains a concern to the school administrators and other stakeholders because without discipline the school activities may not run smoothly hence affecting effective teaching and learning. There is growing concern from educators and other stakeholders that the poor results in Imenti South Sub County could be attributed to discipline. The purpose of this study was to determine the challenges in management of pupils discipline in public primary schools of Imenti South Sub County, Meru County, Kenya. The study aimed at determining the school based challenges, home based challenges and cultural based challenges faced in management of pupils discipline in public primary schools of Imenti South Sub-County. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The study was conducted in public primary schools in Imenti South Sub-County, Meru County. The sub-county had 122 primary schools in total, with a target population of 1,291 subjects comprising of 1,288 teachers and 3 Curriculum Supporting Officers. Simple random sampling was used to sample schools in Imenti South Sub- County. The teachers were selected using simple random sampling method. Deputy Head teachers, Head teachers and Curriculum Support Officers were selected by use of purposive sampling. This enabled the researcher to realize a sample size of 303 respondents who were used for the study. The researcher used questionnaires and interview schedule for data collection. Piloting was carried out among 30 respondents in the neighboring Imenti Central Sub-County. The validity of instruments was ensured through the expert judgment from the university supervisors. Cronbach‟s coefficient Alpha was applied to access reliability and the study had an Alpha value of 0.772 indicating adequate convergence or internal consistency. Data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21. Descriptive statistics which included frequencies and percentages were used to analyze quantitative data. The results were presented using charts and tables. The study revealed that inadequate guidance and counseling infrastructure, teacher competence and abolition of corporal punishment posed a challenge in management of discipline in a large extent. Results also indicated that unfriendly home environment, lack of provision of basic needs and parents use of alcohol posed a challenge in management of pupils discipline in a great extent. The study concludes that the environment the pupils grow in is very important in molding a disciplined pupil. Lack of a positive environment was a major cause of disciplinary problems. The researcher recommends that Guidance and counseling in schools to be enhanced and parents to be sensitized on how to create positive environment and also be educated on their parental role to minimize cases of indiscipline. The findings of this study shall be useful to the policy makers and other stakeholders of education on the priority areas of challenges and address such challenges for effective management of pupils discipline.