Influence of Head-teachers’ Leadership on Implementation of Information and Communication Technology in Public Primary Schools in Rabai Sub-County in Kilifi County - Kenya

Abstract

Information and communication Technology (ICT) has become the principal driver of economy all over the world, and its role in education sector cannot be down-played. Kenyan government inclusive, has invested heavily in ICT to align education with vision 2030.The schools have been mandated through the head teachers’ leadership, to spearhead the implementation of ICT policies in the school. Despite the heavy government’s investments on infrastructure and capacity building, the ICT policy implementation in Rabai Sub County is still dismal raising question on the influence of leadership on ICT implementation. This study investigated the influence head teachers’ communication skills, coordination skills, quality supervision skills and motivation skill on ICT implementation in public primary schools in Rabai Sub County in Kilifi County -Kenya. This study was anchored on Diffusion of Innovations Theories by Everett M. Rodgers and Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene theory by Frederick Herzberg. The study used descriptive survey research design to gather qualitative and quantitative data which was analyzed to describe systematically the situation of ICT implementation in Rabai Sub County in Kilifi County- Kenya. The target population was 44 public primary schools and Census technique was used. 88 respondents were obtained using purposive sampling where all 44 head teachers and 44 ICT champion teachers were sampled. The researcher used interview schedule for the head teachers and closed ended questionnaires for the ICT champion teachers. The qualitative data from the head teachers was organized and coded according to themes and the Likert Scale of 1-5 was used to measure the respondents’ level of agreement on the questionnaires. The responses from both tools was organized according to the objectives and presented qualitatively and quantitatively. Pre-testing was done in Kaloleni Sub County whereby a reliability coefficient of above 0.07 and 0.05% level of significance was achieved and it was considered reliable. The validity of the instrument was determined through consultations with specialists in the study area. The data was collected after obtaining a letter of authority from Kenya Methodist University (KeMU), National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI), Kilifi County Commissioner Office, Kilifi County Education Office and Rabai Sub-county Education Office. The data collected was analyzed using Descriptive Statistics Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) program and final results displayed using percentages, and graphs. The study found out that the head teachers had adequate communication skill with mean of 2.53716 and std 1.200452. Coordination skills, was deficient with (moderate mean of 3.30288 and the std of 1.051966). The quality supervision skill of the head teachers ’was deficient, mean moderate of 3.5085 and the std 1.144732, and the motivation skills of the head teacher was deficient, mean moderate 3.93142 and the std 1.983578. From the analysis, the researcher concluded that coordination skills, quality supervisions kills and motivation skills of head teachers were lacking. This negatively affected implementation of ICT since there was a strong correlations between effective leadership in terms of communication, coordination, quality supervision and motivation, and implementation of ICT policy in the public primary schools. Capacity building on these core leadership skills to empower head teachers is recommended. The researcher recommended that further research should be done on quality supervision and coordination as these were very critical to the successful implementation of any ICT strategy in schools.