Headteachers’ Staffing Management Practices The Moderating Demographics & Pupils’ Academic Achievement

Abstract

The research article examines the effect of Headteachers’ staffing management practices in academic programmes and the moderating effect of Headteachers’ demographic characteristics on the relationship between staffing management practices and pupils’ academic achievement in public primary schools in West Pokot County, Kenya. It covers public primary schools whose pupils had sat for the KCPE examination from 2012 to 2016 from 320 public primary schools. It adopts a cross-sectional survey with a mixed-methods approach. A sample size of 32 Headteachers, 128 Subject HODs, 4 TSC SCDE and one QUASO were selected purposively. Simple linear regression and moderation analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS are employed for the data analysis. Its findings indicate that Headteachers’ staffing practices in academic programmes accounted for a significant portion of the variance in KCPE mean scores. Experience as a Headteacher, academic qualifications and teaching experience significantly moderated the relationship between staffing management practices and KCPE mean scores. The recommendations include ensuring adequate and qualified teacher deployment by the TSC and incentivizing rural postings by introducing additional benefits to attract and retain teachers in marginalized areas.