Do Principals’ Staff Recruitment Practices Influence Academic Performance of Schools? An Empirical Study of Public Secondary Schools in Isinya Sub- County, Kajiado County, Kenya

: Human resource management practices adopted by secondary school principals play a key role in ensuring improved service delivery and academic performance in internal and national examinations. However, in Isinya Sub- County, the situation is different with many public secondary schools registering low academic grades in KCSE. This study sought to assess the influence of principals’ human resource management resource practices on academic performance in public secondary schools in Isinya Sub- County, Kajiado County, Kenya. The study was guided by the objective: To determine the influence of staff recruitment practices adopted by principals on academic performance in public secondary schools in Isinya Sub- County. This study was guided by the systems theory which was postulated by Luhmann Nklas and adopted a mixed methodology and thus applied concurrent triangulation research design. Using a target population of 433, Yamane’s Formula was used to get a sample of 208 respondents who were selected by stratification. Piloting was conducted among 21 respondents from secondary schools in Isinya Sub- County. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically based on study objectives and presented in narrative form, whereas quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study found that staff recruitment practices adopted by principals influence academic performance in public secondary schools. Principals usually put adverts to announce the existence of a teaching vacancy in public secondary schools detailing requirements for every position. The study recommends that the principals should ensure that staff hired are qualified with relevant educational level, pre-requisite experience and understand the nature of their work.