Influence Of Provision Of Incentives By Head Teachers On Teachers’ Work Performance In Public Primary Schools In Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Recent reports on education in Kenya underscore the importance of head teachers adopting effective instructional leadership practices and teachers enhancing their pedagogical knowledge and skills in order to guarantee high-quality education and academic achievement within the country's school systems. One of the instructional leadership practices that can be adopted by headteachers is the provision of incentives to teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of provision of incentives by the head teachers on teachers’ work performance in public primary schools in Nakuru County, Kenya. Hallinger and Murphy's (1985) Model of Instructional Leadership and Campbell et al.'s (1993) Theory of Job Performance informed the study. The study used mixed methods research approach, and adopted the convergent parallel design. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research methods simultaneously to collect and analyze data from a target population of 57,800 pupils, 7,741 teachers, and 680 head teachers from 680 schools, and 11 Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QASOs). A sample of 68 primary schools were selected for the study using cluster sampling. From these sampled schools 60 pupils and 329 teachers were selected through simple random sampling. Purposive sampling was also used to select 68 head teachers and 9 QASOs. The research instruments used were a focus group discussion guide, questionnaire, interview schedule, and document analysis checklist. A pilot study was conducted in 7 public primary schools in Baringo County with a sample size of 35 teachers. Descriptive and inferential statistics specifically frequency counts, percentages, Spearman rank correlation, and regression analysis, were used to analyze the quantitative data. Qualitative dat was analysed using textual analysis approach. The hypothesis was tested at a significance level of 0.05 using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The findings were presented as frequencies and percentages using tables. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically and presented in narrative forms. The study established that provision of incentives by the head teachers had a statistically significant positive influence on teachers’ work performance in public primary schools in Nakuru County. The study highlights the importance of teachers' work performance for overall school outcomes, providing valuable knowledge for head teachers and education stakeholders to focus on initiatives for provision of incentives for teachers and policies that support such initiatives. This will create an enabling environment for maximizing teachers' efficiency and effectiveness, leading to improved pupil performance in KCPE examinations in public primary schools.