Influence of school information flow strategy on internal efficiency in public secondary school in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the influence of information flow on internal efficiency in public secondary schools in Nakuru county. The study was guided by System theory by Von Bertanlanffy. Mixed methodology and concurrent triangulation design were used in this study. The target population of the study was 311 public secondary school teachers (3168), principals (311) and sub-county education officers (11) in Nakuru County. The sample frame included teachers (205), principals (30), and sub-county education officers (5), thus respondents were 240. The study applied stratified random sampling to sample sub-counties, schools, teachers, head teachers and sub-county education officers. Questionnaires were used to gather quantitative facts from staff, whereas interview schedule was used to gather qualitative data from principals and sub-county education officers and finally document analysis was employed to collect quantitative data. The reliability was determined by calculating Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, which yielded a satisfactory correlation coefficient of 0.76. Data was analyzed descriptively and inferentially using SPSS (version 23). From the findings, channel of communication commonly used in public secondary schools in Nakuru County has not yet improved both strategic plan implementation and internal efficiency, even though there was positive relationship between information flow and internal efficiency. For school improvement on the internal efficiencies in terms of academic performance and graduation rate, this study recommends that the Information flow in the process of implementing strategic plan in order to improve school internal efficiency need to be open (top-down, down-up and horizontal information flow) to allow input of various skills form all stakeholder so that everyone own the strategic plan and implement it fully.