Influence of Principals Problem-Solving Skills on Management of Student Discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Bureti Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Student discipline is an issue that concerns several stakeholders across the globe. Despite the Kenyan government's commitment to upholding local and international trends in recognising children's rights, managing student discipline in schools through alternative disciplinary methods is mostly unexplored. The paper investigates the influence of principals' problem-solving skills on the management of student discipline in public secondary schools in Bureti Sub County, Kenya. The social cognitive theory was used as the study guide. This research study employed the descriptive survey research design. The accessible population was 3853, comprising 1 sub-county education director, 51 principals and 3801 form two students. The sample size 176 respondents comprised of 145 students, 38 principals and 1 sub-county director. The simple random and purposive sampling were adopted in selecting desired respondents. This study used a structured questionnaire and interview schedule as the main research instruments. The study produced both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data gathered through interviews was examined using content analysis of respondents' meanings and implications. Quantitative data was coded, cleaned, and analysed using the 24th version of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to obtain descriptive statistics. The results indicated that students involved in addressing various issues during school assemblies scored the highest of all the items. Principals’ used student leadership as a method of solving student issues, students' welfare and were entrusted in resolving conflicts among students. Student engagements in problem-solving, management of peer pressure and giving reasons before punishing the students had also positive impact on reducing indiscipline. However, students’ leadership were limited to staff and BOM meeting especially during decision making. Principal’s problem-solving skills has an important role in reducing indiscipline among the secondary schools. The study concluded that Principals’ fmoeproblem-solving skills played a significant role on students’ discipline. The study recommended that the School Management should implement strategies such as training for the principals to learn various competency skills such as decision-making and conflict management to better suit them for managing student discipline in their institutions