Dr. Anne Wairimu Ndiritu

Key messages
Effective training is a key determinant for adopting online learning in educational institutions.
Transformational leadership characteristics are important in managing change that is required in learning
institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Modelling the way is a necessity in university management of online teaching and learning through COVID-19 Season

Efficient management of construction works should focus its attention on utilizing labour, equipment, and raw materials in the right way. Besides, they claim that responsible parties should evaluate labour productivity continuously and that cost control measures should be developed. Low productivity witnessed in construction is linked to internal challenges including disputes, abandonment of projects, excess budget, and time overlaps. The objective of the study was to determine the financial effect of labour related risks on completion of PPP projects. A descriptive survey design was used with simple random sampling targeting 85 members of the management team at the completed Sondu-Miriu Power project. The participants were administered with questionnaire which were sent by mail (in some cases) and selected participants encouraged to respond. Data obtained was analysed through SPSS platform using descriptive statistics and Pearson Moment correlation as inferential statistics. The study found that labour related risks in construction PPP projects included failure by employees and experts to complete assigned tasks, injuries and deaths, changing labour demands during the project as well as cases of go slow. Construction labour related risks affected the financial cost, time and quality of work performed in the construction project. The study concludes that labour related risks have a financial effect on completion of PPP projects such that as the risks increase, the financial cost increases. The study recommends that more focus should be placed on the identification and recruitment of project staff as well task allocation.

Effective monitoring and evaluation practices is widely known to help improve performance, the quality and effectiveness of planning and decision making and achievement of results. This is because monitoring focuses on the implementation process and progress towards the achievement of project objectives. Despite the Kenya Government’s effort to promote County Maternal Health programmes through legal frameworks such as the county integrated monitoring and evaluation practices tool, and while there is empirical evidence that monitoring and evaluation practices contributes to enhanced performance, actual performance of county health sector across Kenya remains poor. The purpose of the study was to establish moderating influence of contextual determinants on the relationship between monitoring and evaluation practices and performance of County Maternal Health programmes in Kenya. The paradigm that is suitable for this study is pragmatism. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study targeted 8 regional blocks in Kenya (Central,, Western Coast, Eastern, Rift Valley, North Eastern, Nyanza, Nairobi) where one county from each block was selected. From these counties the target population was 1165 respondents including Medical officers, Clinical Officers, Trained Community health workers, Nurses, County Health Management Team and County Delivery Unit officers from level 4 and 5 hospitals. Sampling procedure for this study was guided by the research design which is descriptive survey design. Stratified random sampling was used to obtain 282 respondents from which information was obtained for this study. The research instruments that were used for data collection are: a self-administered structured questionnaire and interview guides. Descriptive and inferential data analysis techniques were used in this study. Regression was conducted for testing the study hypothesis. The research established that there was a strong correlation between the performance of county maternal health programmes and contextual determinants (r=0.638, p=0.000<0.05). The study found that after introduction of contextual determinants into the relationship, and the interaction term in model 2 increased the R square by 0.08. This implies that the interaction between contextual determinants and monitoring and evaluation practices explains 8.0% variations in performance of county maternal health programmes. The study concluded that contextual determinants significantly moderate the relationship between monitoring and evaluation practices and performance of County Maternal Health Programmes in Kenya. The study recommends investing in robust and dynamic technical coordination platforms that can sustain the agenda for change. and at all levels is necessary to ensure the sustainability of M&E reforms in the health sector.

The study sought to establish the relationship between monitoring and evaluation practices and performance of County Maternal Health programmes in Kenya. The combined monitoring and evaluation practices included planning for M&E, stakeholder engagement, capacity building for M&E, and M&E data use. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. To obtain 282 respondents, stratified random sampling was used. A self-administered structured questionnaire was the study's research instrument. Using descriptive narratives, qualitative data was analyzed within specific themes. Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively using measures of central tendencies and measures of dispersion. Regression was conducted for testing the study hypotheses. Data was presented using frequency tables. The study found that stakeholders’ engagement in M&E and capacity building for M&E influenced the performance of County Maternal Health Programmes in Kenya. The study also found that the respondents agreed that planning for M&E and the data management for M&E. This implied that the combined monitoring and evaluation practices influence performance of County Maternal Health Programmes in Kenya.The study found a strong correlation between the performance of county maternal health programmes and combined monitoring and evaluation practices. The study concluded that combined planning for M&E monitoring and evaluation practices influenced the performance of county maternal health programmes. The study suggests that management develop an effective methodology as well as raise awareness of M&E activities for the success of the project. The study also suggests that human resources issues such as workers charged with monitoring and evaluation ought to have technical capabilities, and roles and duties of monitoring and evaluation personnel should be outlined at the start of projects. To ensure M&E sustainability health sector reforms, investments in strong and vibrant technical harmonization platforms that can sustain the change agenda at all times and every required level.

Abstract:
Food supply is less than food demand in Kitui County as population keeps increasing. This lack of food leads to
malnutrition, poor health and even death to human beings and animals both domestic and wild. Agriculture is the key
food source in Kitui County in the republic of Kenya. Occasionally residents buy food quantities from neighboring Arid
and semi-arid areas counties which is not a reliable source because they face similar challenge. Many interventions to
improve food security has been put in place and one such is irrigation by the local county and National government
initiated through National irrigation Board but sustainability of these projects is a great concern in Kitui County.
Despite the irrigation projects setup still biting is food insufficiency which persists. One approach to improve
sustainability of irrigation projects is carrying out participatory monitoring and evaluation and then taking
corrective action which could also lead to ownership and then improved sustainability. This was the objective of the
study which was to assess if taking corrective action after Participatory Monitoring and evaluation (PME)influence
project sustainability. The study used descriptive survey and correlation designs in order to collect data from 316
respondents who were selected using stratification, judgmental and purposeful with strict randomization methods.
Questionnaires were administered and interviews were conducted on selected respondents on appointed dates. Data
was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social scientist (SPSS) version 25.0in order to get descriptive statistics also
correlation coefficients were got in order to get association and degree of strength. Testing of hypothesis was done
using linear regression. The study findings show thata big percentage (56.3%) of the respondents were aged between
31 to 40years.Majority of the respondents were females and their highest-level of education was up to primary school.
The respondents agreed that PME data collection and taking corrective action were not done. Taking corrective
action had a weak influence on sustainability with a correlation coefficient (r)of 0.33 which only explains 10.9% of
project sustainability. It’s recommended that farmers should be trained more through seminars and vocational
institutions in order to empower them with skills. Also, farmers should be encouraged to participate in irrigation
projects as they can have a sense of ownership. Infrastructure should be improved in order to access markets and a PM
& Eunit should be set up in irrigation projects in order to spear data collection and analysis and guide projects
towards sustainability. This is significant because it will improve sustainability and thus more food supply reducing
malnutrition rates and death among people and animals.
Keywords: Participatory monitoring and evaluation, Food security, taking corrective action, irrigation,
Sustainability, Projects, management

Project, and Production Management 2020, 10(2), 94-102
Abstract: health-related problems and even death among animals and human beings. Agriculture is the main food source; thus, many interventions are made such as that of irrigation by the local county and national government initiated through the National Irrigation Board (NIB). Despite the irrigation projects food insufficiency still persists, therefore their sustainability is questionable. One such approach to improving the sustainability of irrigation projects is participatory monitoring and evaluation which leads to ownership and then higher sustainability. In the study, the objective was to asses if taking corrective action after participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) influence project sustainability. The study used a descriptive survey and correlation designs to collect data from 316 respondents selected using stratification sand purposeful with strict randomization. Questionnaires were administered and interviews were conducted on selected sample respondents on appointed dates. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0 to get descriptive statistics, correlations coefficients were obtained to test association and degree of strength. Testing of the hypothesis was done using linear regression. The study findings were that a large number of respondents were between ages 31 to 40 years and most were female with their highest level of education being primary school. The influence of PME capacity building on the dependent variable and irrigation projects sustainability found that the farmers were not taken for exposure visits and project officers were not accountable for money use. Age, gender, and education level have very minimal influence on PME capacity building. PME capacity building had a weak positive influence of r = 0.290 and it explained only 8.4% of irrigation projects sustainability in Kitui County. The study recommends that to improve project capacity building: project revenue must be controlled on use, farmers must be taken for exposure visits to learn from successors, project officers should be accountable for funds use, and project guidelines should be improved to increase sustainability. Implementation of these recommendations will reduce the loss of Arid and Semi-Srid Lands (ASALs) and attain higher and longer sustainability in food projects, thus, reducing the recurrence rate of food shortage, improve and hasten the implementation of irrigation projects, show the need to involve primary stakeholders in project monitoring and appraisal for sustainability, better and efficient decisions by policymakers to increase chances of project's success. Keywords: Food security, Participatory monitoring and evaluation, irrigation, taking corrective action, capacity building, sustainability, funds management, projects

The vision of education service delivery in Kenya is to have an internationally competitive quality education, training and research for sustainable development. More developed countries are associated with their great investment in human capital. They are also associated with development of ICT which has led to improved standards of living and good governance. This study was carried out on 395 pre-school teachers who were undertaking their in-service training in Kiambu County. The study sort to establish ICT whether the teachers engaged in ECD centers had any skills in ICT. This study further sort to establish whether there was integration of ICT in teaching and learning in selected preschools in Kenya. A researcher designed questionnaire was used in the study. A total of 60.83 % of the total population had no knowledge of ICT and therefore did not integrate ICT in their teaching and learning in the selected preschools. All the teachers expressed that the government had not sponsored them for ICT training and the little they had they had sponsored themselves. Grounded on these findings the study recommended that the government should be on the forefront to not only invest in ICT infrastructure but also in education of teachers in ICT. With the paradigm shift in the Kenya’s education curriculum this concern should be immediate. The government should take up the responsibility of ensuring that all teachers are exposed to ICT skills since these will change their interaction with the students who are quite ahead of their teachers in technology.

The purpose of the study was to examine factors that affect a Kenyan household’s decision to save in formal financial
institutions. This is because domestic saving finances investment and therefore economic growth. A non-experimental
research design was utilized using secondary data collected from a national-wide household survey in Kenya in 2009.
Cluster stratified probability sampling was used in selecting regions and households that were included in the survey.
A total of 6,598 households were used in the survey, using a questionnaire to gather information on financial access.
Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The results indicated the factors that influence
household’s decision to save in formal financial institutions were availability of loans, level of financial information,
location of household, sector of employment, expectations about future economic conditions, level of income, number
of banks in district of residence, transaction cost and time to nearest bank branch.
Keywords: household savings, formal financial institutions, economic growth,

This study was carried out in selected public secondary schools in Kenya. It is on the realization that the work of the school Principal is not easy and many find themselves in leadership without proper preparation for the hard task. The school principals’ work is a high-stress job especially because he or she has to do virtually everything related to students, teachers, parents, subordinate staff and the community at large. This kind of leader would require extra-ordinary characteristics to be able to be successful. Majority of principals perform decimally in all the areas that spell success in secondary schools especially in discipline and academic performance. The purpose of this study was to find out how principals’ transformational leadership characteristics were correlates to effective school performance. Kouze’s and Posner’s leadership Practices Inventory(LPI) “self” questionnaire was used to measure Principals’ transformational leadership style. LPI “others” was used to triangulate the principals’ response with the teachers. The target population consisted of 72 Principals in public schools and 139 principals in private schools. There were also 1210 teachers in public secondary schools and 1500 teachers in private secondary schools in Nairobi County. The findings indicated positive correlations between the Principals’ transformational leadership characteristics with effective school performance.

Keywords: Secondary schools, transformational leadership, modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, encouraging the heart, enabling others to act

Teamwork is the lubricant that makes the team to work efficiently. This only happens when the team members share and understand their common vision. This study sort to investigate the influence of Principals’ transformational leadership characteristic of “Inspiring a shared vision” and academic performance in secondary schools. The study was carried out in Nairobi County, Kenya. Stratified random sampling was used in selection of respondents to ensure that principals from both public and private schools were included in the sample. Transformational leadership was measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory-self developed by Kouzes and Posner (1993). Principal’s responses were triangulated usingKouzes and Posner’s Leadership Practices Inventory-others on teachers. To test relationships between principals’ ratings and teachers’ ratings, t-test was used. Results indicated a modest correlation between leadership characteristic of “inspiring a Shared Vision” and students’ academic performance. This relationship was statistically significant (r=0.477 n=40 p=0.002). Based on the findings, it is recommended that principals should ensure that all the stakeholders are moving in the same direction by practicing transformational leadership characteristic of “inspiring others to act”.

The main objective of this study was to investigate how community water projects are influenced by water user fee payment by the stakeholders. This study was carried out in Kieni Constituency, Nyeri County in Kenya. The research was based on the models of sustainability and theories of capital structure. The study was carried out in all the 73 water projects in Kieni Constituency. The units of analysis were all the chairmen of these projects together with 381 beneficiaries of the water projects. Two district water officers and 9 local bank managers were also included in the study. Structured questionnaires, interview and observation schedules were used as research instruments. Pearson’s Product Moment correlation was used in ascertaining the relationships between the study variables and F statistic was used in testing the hypothesis that: there is no significant relationship between the amount of water user fees and sustainability of community water projects. The analysis showed that there was a correlation coefficient r=0.356 depicting a moderate positive correlation which was significant at 0.10 significant level. This indicated a significant moderate positive relationship between water user fee and sustainability of community water projects. It was therefore concluded that an increase in water user fee moderately improves sustainability of community water projects. From the study findings, it was recommended that there is need to establish a sufficient level of water user fee and also a proper management of the collected water user payments Keywords: Water user fee, Sustainability, community projects

ICT is a critical tool for expanding human skills and rests largely on a system of producing, distributing and utilising information and knowledge that in turn plays a great role in driving productivity and economic prosperity. Kenya as a developing country realizes this importance and has a ministry specifically dealing with ICT. The vision statement of the ministry of information and Technology as stated in its strategic plan 2013-2018 is to make Kenya a globally competitive knowledge-based economy. This vision aims at shifting the current industrial development path towards innovation where creation, adoption, adaptation and use of knowledge remain the key source of economic growth. Research has shown that countries which have invested a lot in their human capital are far ahead of others in development. This development is likely to be an illusion unless Kenya is able to achieve its educational goals. Education and training has been isolated in the vision 2030 as the only mechanism that will translate Kenya into a middle-income economy. This is because education is fundamental to development of human resource capacities for sustainable economic growth and development. Through impartation of new skills and knowledge in people, education is able to improve human capabilities and labour productivity. It is in this regard that the Kenyan government has invested a lot of funds in ICT infrastructure including digitization of educational materials through Kenya Institute of curriculum Development. Kenya’s vision of education service provision is to have a globally competitive quality education, training and research for Kenya’s sustainable development. This study focused on the influence of secondary school managers on integration of ICT in teaching and learning in Githunguri subcounty, Kiambu County in Kenya. The study targeted 40 schools with a total population of 245 male teachers and 282 female teachers. teachers. A researcher developed questionnaire was issued to all the 40 school managers and to 100 teachers for triangulation purposes. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).The study sort to establish if there is a relationship between management support and ICT integration in teaching and learning. Pearson correlation coefficient was used in the analysis. A positive correlation coefficient of 0.560 was obtained between the level of school management support and the use of ICT in teaching and learning. The findings indicated that school managers influenced integration of ICT in teaching and learning. The study therefore suggested that effort should be made by all stakeholders to ensure that school managers come up with policies on ICT integration in their schools which should be in line with the National ICT policy. KEY word: ICT integration, Teaching and learning, school managers, transformational leadership, challenging the process, secondary schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of grant financing on sustainability of community water projects in Kieni Constituency, Nyeri County, Kenya. This study was limited to community water projects in Kieni. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and conducted a census of all the 73 water projects in Kieni Constituency. Respondents were chairpersons of each of the water projects. Data collection instruments were questionnaires, interview schedules and observation schedules. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, that is, mean, standard deviations, frequency and percentages, as well as inferential statistics, that is, multiple regression analysis for modeling, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation for correlation analysis and F statistics for testing hypothesis. The study established that, there was a weak negative relationship between grant financing and level of sustainability of community water projects. An increase in grants reduces the levels of sustainability of a community water project. The null hypothesis two was accepted. It was therefore concluded that, there was no significant relationship between grant financing and sustainability of community water projects. Grant financing accounted for only 2.3% of the variation in levels of sustainability. The study recommended that, community water projects take less of grants for their project to improve sustainability of water projects. Alternatively, grants should have terms for repayment as a loan at a flexible and cheaper way in order to ensure ownership, effectiveness and efficiency in the use of grants. Key words: Sustainability, Community Water Projects, Grants, Donors.

This study explored the influence of Total Quality Management practices on performance of Small and Medium Enterprises. Youth Projects in Kajiado County, Kenya were used as the target population. One of the key TQM management practices is training of employees. The study sort to determine the influence of training of employees on performance on SMEs. The study was carried out on 168 youth group projects in Kajiado County.Questionnaires and interviews were used as research instruments. For triangulation purpose, the interview schedule was used to confirm the information captured by the questionnaire. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The study used mixed method approach in the collection and analysis, to capture both the qualitative and quantitative data.Spearman’s correlation was used to test the relationship between training and performance of SMEs. The analyses indicated a moderately positive relationship between training and performance of SMEs in Kajiado county which was statistically significant rs=0.400, p=0.600.Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, it is recommended that to improve the performance of the youth groups, they should strive to ensure their product in the market is superior. This can only be ensured by equipping their employees with proper skills, knowledge and values through training.

ABSTRACT
As the country re- evaluates the achievement of Millennium goals, it becomes important for Kenya to take its toll. One of the intentions was to increase gross enrolment rate in higher education. The projection was to increase the number of students joining the universities to 450,000 by end of 2015 from 130,000 in 2008. This number was to be increased through expansion of courses done through distance education. The targeted population was of those already in employment. This group has to be able to balance the demands of their workplace and their social demands for the back to school agenda to be achieved. The university of Nairobi school of continuing and distance education runs a course in distance education. However It has been noted that among the students who sit for university exams, many do not score 40% which is a minimum score for students to progress to the next level. The failure rate goes up to 63% with 27% out of 38% cases scoring below 40%, which is a very high failure rate. This failure rate prohibits students from graduating. it is worth finding out the cause of this failure rate. This study was carried out to find out if distance learners had a problem managing their time given the demands of the same among competing ends. An effort was also made to find out if this problem had an effect on their academic performance. From a total number of 4500 of students from the University of Nairobi in different levels of their B.Ed degrees, a sample of 650 students were selected using stratified random sampling technique .Data was collected using a mixed mode method and analyzed using Pearson correlations. The findings indicated a strong relationship between time management and academic performance (r=0.569)
Key words : work study balance, distance education, time management, Academic performance

Abstract
Development has greatly been associated with the level of technology. Countries that have succeeded in harnessing the potential of ICT have been said to have taken a positive step towards a greatly expanded economic growth, improved human welfare and stronger forms of democratic governance. There are however a lot of imbalances between countries that have access to ICT hence the notion of digital divide. In developing countries, this divide can be found in the preliminaries of being able to reap the advantages of ICT. In Kenya, there are not just discrepancies in the availability of resources but also in the ability to use the few available resources. This digital divide is even wider in that investment of ICT seems to be more biased towards the formal sector than other sectors of education. Although there is a lot of effort made like digitization of educational materials for the formal sector, it is important to find out how this is realized in adult literacy classes. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of computers by the ECD student teachers and adult education learners. The study further explored the integration of ICT in teaching and learning in the two categories of learners. Two researcher developed questionnaires were used to gather the required information: one for the ECD teachers who were in their training sessions and the other for adult learners in session in all parts of country. The paper stresses the indisputable need for use of computers to promote education whether in formal or non-formal sector. The sample consisted of 395 pre-school teacher trainees and 200 adult learners. The findings indicated that only (39.17%) ECD teacher trainers and (90%) of adult learners had not acquired any computer skills. All the learners in ECD training and 88% of the respondents felt that computer skills would greatly improve their learning and help them to engage better with their environment which is full of ICT related gadgets. Based on these findings, it was recommended that there is need for the government to invest more in computers which should be made available in all centres in Kenya.

Keywords: Computer literacy, computer, information and communication technology, digital divide, teaching and learning

Effective organizations have often been associated with the kind of leadership practice exercised in such organizations. When schools are not performing well, the blame is usually put on the principal who is the leader of the school. This study explored the relationship between secondary school Principals’ transformational leadership practice of inspiring a shared vision and students’ academic performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). The study was carried out in Nairobi County, Kenya. Stratified sampling process was used to ensure that both public and private schools in Nairobi were captured in the study. Leadership behaviour was measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory-(“Self” and “others”). Correlational research design was employed in data analysis. Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between transformational leadership characteristics and academic performance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test if a relationship existed between selected demographic characteristics and the interaction of leadership characteristics of principals’ and students’ academic performance. To test relationships between principals’ ratings and teachers’ ratings, ratings of male principals and female principals, t-test was used. Results indicated a positive correlation of “Inspiring a shared vision”. It was recommended that secondary school principals should exhibit transformational leadership of inspiring a shared vision in order to succeed in today’s changing world of educational leadership.

Effective organizations have often been associated with the kind of leadership practice exercised in such organizations. When schools are not performing well, the blame is usually put on the principal who is the leader of the school. This study explored the relationship between secondary school Principals’ transformational leadership practice of inspiring a shared vision and students’ academic performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). The study was carried out in Nairobi County, Kenya. Stratified sampling process was used to ensure that both public and private schools in Nairobi were captured in the study. Leadership behaviour was measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory-(“Self” and “others”). Correlational research design was employed in data analysis. Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between transformational leadership characteristics and academic performance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test if a relationship existed between selected demographic characteristics and the interaction of leadership characteristics of principals’ and students’ academic performance. To test relationships between principals’ ratings and teachers’ ratings, ratings of male principals and female principals, t-test was used. Results indicated a positive correlation of “Inspiring a shared vision”. It was recommended that secondary school principals should exhibit transformational leadership of inspiring a shared vision in order to succeed in today’s changing world of educational leadership.
Key words: Transformational leadership, inspiring a shared vision, secondary school principals, teachers, academic performance

Universities continue to develop new methods of teaching in order to reach many people who cannot access education through the conventional methods; and to attain equity and increase access in higher education for development. Education is a key pillar in development. As Kenya works towards the attainment of Vision 2030 a lot has to be done in education to increase equity and access to allow many people to participate in the development. A lot of resources have been committed to development and implementation of DE materials and facilities but adoption of DE continues to be minimal at the Kenyan Public universities. This paper explores the role DE support facilities plays in the participation of university managers in DE activities in Kenya’s Public Universities. To study this role, the following indicators were analysed: computer availability to the managers and staff; access to personal computer; internet availability; number of internet connection points; and availability of ICT help desk. The study sort to establish the extent to which availability of personal computers availability of internet, number of internet connection points, availability of computers for teaching influence managers’ participation in DE; and to assess the availability of ICT help desks. The research employed cross-sectional descriptive survey design; and multi-stage stratified sampling design. The findings indicated that availing necessary support facilities is crucial if adoption of DE is to be increased in the public universities in Kenya.
KEY WORDS: Participation, distance education, university managers.

Kenya through its vision 2030 aims to become a middle-income industrialized country. In this vision, education and training has been isolated as a supreme vehicle that will take the country to the desired level of development. Although the government of Kenya has invested a lot of funds in education, it is sad that many schools do not provide teaching and learning in the most efficient way. A lot of blame has been attributed to the leadership styles used by the secondary school principals. This has created disharmony between the principals and other stakeholders. Scholars have tried to establish the kind of leadership behaviour that would enhance efficiency in organizations. School leaders have tried many leadership approaches with the aim of improving school efficiency. In the last two decades, Instructional and Transformational leadership theories have been frequently mentioned and researched in educational leadership. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Instructional leadership paradigm was thought to have served the schools well. Although this theory was said to have been the most popular in educational leadership, modern demands for educational reforms have made school leaders to look for an alternative. Just as societal and school demographics have changed in recent decades, so has the type of leadership needed to successfully lead the rapidly changing schools. A recent theory that has been embraced by many school leaders is transformational leadership. This study sought to establish the extent to which public school principals have embraced “modeling the way” characteristic of transformational leadership in comparison to the private school principals in Kenya. The study further investigated the relationship between this transformational leadership characteristic to students academic performance in both categories of schools. The sample consisted of 387 participants from 49 secondary schools in Kenya. Co relational research design was employed in data analysis. The findings indicated that principals in private schools scored higher (53.63) than the principals who were in public schools (51.79). The analyses indicated a negative correlation between “Modeling the way” transformational characteristic of principals in public schools and in private schools. Pearson correlation analysis also showed a significant correlation between Modeling the way" characteristic and students’ academic performance. Based on these findings, it is important to ensure that the principals feel totally in control of their institutions.

Key words: Transformational leadership, Principals, modeling the way, school ownership

Leadership is an area that many would not want to take for granted because of established correlations between success or failure of any organization and its leadership. Scholars have tried to establish the kind of leadership behaviour that would enhance efficiency in organizations. One kind of leadership behaviour that has been a topic of debate among scholars for the past decade is transformational leadership. This study endeavoured to establish the effect of transformational leadership on academic performance in selected secondary schools in Kenya. The participants were administered Kouzes and Posner’s leadership Practices Inventory which identified the principal leadership practices in each of the five dimensions of “challenging the process”, “inspiring a shared vision”, “enabling others to act”, “modeling the way” and “encouraging the heart”. The sample consisted of 387 participants from 49 secondary schools in Kenya. Leadership behaviour was measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory-(“Self” and “others”). Co relational research design was employed in data analysis. Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between transformational leadership practices and academic performance. Pearson correlation indicated statistical significance between total LPI scores and students’ academic performance. A further analysis of the leadership domains showed there was a positive correlation between three transformational characteristics (Inspiring a Shared Vision, Challenging the process and Encouraging the Heart) and Students’ academic performance. There was however a weak but not statistically significant correlation between transformational leadership in two characteristics (Modeling the way and Enabling Others to Act) and students’ academic performance. The principals whose schools obtained the minimum university entry mark (Above C+) scored higher in LPI scores than the principals whose schools obtained less than the university entry marks (Below C+). It was recommended that all learners undertaking their teacher training should be trained on transformational leadership since they are the ones that take over leadership roles in their career as teachers. All practicing school principals should learn and practice transformational leadership for effective learning and teaching in their schools.

Vision 2030 was developed by Kenya government as a roadmap for development. This aims to transform Kenya into a middle-income industrialized country and is anchored on three pillars: economic, social and political. This development is likely to be an illusion unless Kenya is able to achieve its educational goals. Education and training has been isolated in the vision 2030 as the only mechanism that will translate Kenya into a middle-income economy. The vision of education service provision is to have a globally competitive quality education, training and research for Kenya’s sustainable development. Countries that have succeeded in harnessing the potential of ICT have been said to have taken a positive step towards a greatly expanded economic growth, improved human welfare and stronger forms of democratic governance. It is in this regard that the Kenyan government has invested a lot of funds in ICT infrastructure including digitization of educational materials through Kenya Institute of Education. This is geared towards the improvement in the quality of education. The investment is likely not to bear fruits unless the training of teachers is put on the forefront. There should therefore be an emphasis of training teachers in ICT because they are the central forces in tapping the learning potentials created by ICT. Teachers for all levels from pre-primary to university must be trained in ICT if the vision is to be realized. The quality and orientation of education at each level and the link with the demand for skills are critical for mastering technology. Although research has suggested that part of the difficulty in adopting innovation or reform relates to teachers themselves, it is important to find out the part that the government is playing in teacher preparation in ICT in teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the ICT skills possessed by the ECD teachers. Further, the study explored the integration of ICT in teaching and learning of preschool children selected in Kenyan preschools. A researcher developed questionnaire was used to gather the required information from the ECD teachers who were in their training sessions. The sample consisted of 395 pre-school teachers. The findings indicated that majority (60.83%) of the teachers had no knowledge in ICT. The findings also indicated that only 13.01% of the ECD teachers had attended any seminar related to ICT compared to the majority (86.99) who had never attended. All the teachers felt that their teaching would be highly enhanced by ICT integration in teaching and learning. Based on these findings, it was recommended that there is need for the government to invest more in the training of pre-school teachers in ICT integration.
Key words: Information Communication and Technology, Early Childhood education, Teacher Training, Integration
 

Kenya government developed vision 2030 with the aim of transforming Kenya into a middle-income industrialized country. This vision is likely to be an illusion unless Kenya invests in education and training. Countries that have succeeded in harnessing the potential of ICT have been said to have taken a positive step towards a greatly expanded economic growth, improved human welfare and stronger forms of democratic governance. ICT has been correlated with enhanced human development and a major driving force of national growth. Kenya government has invested a lot of funds in the development of ICT infrastructure. This investment is likely not to bear fruits unless the training of teachers is put on the forefront. There should therefore be an emphasis of training teachers in ICT because they are the central forces in tapping the learning potentials created by ICT. Teachers for all levels from pre-primary to university must be trained in ICT if the vision is to be realized. Support for the pre-school education from the government is a recent phenomenon especially in curriculum development. This is because this level of education has been taught by untrained teachers for a long time therefore resulting to poor quality of education. The first effort noted towards this end was the experimental preschool education project that was carried out by the Ministry of education Science and Technology and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation between 1972 and 1982. A later development was on the National Early Childhood Development Policy Framework of 2006 which provided coordination of the different stakeholders in ECD at all levels. As the government continues to support this level of education, it is important to find out the part that it is playing in ensuring that this education is relevant to the changing needs of the students. This will only be possible if the government ensures that teachers have effective techniques, tool and assistance that can help them develop ICT activities that are able to improve student learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the ICT skills possessed by the ECD teachers. Further, the study explored the integration of ICT in teaching and learning of preschool children in selected Kenyan preschools. A researcher developed questionnaire was used to gather the required information from the ECD teachers who were in their training sessions. The sample consisted of 395 pre-school teachers. The findings indicated that only (39.17%) of the teachers had any knowledge in ICT. Most of the teachers (86.99) reported that there they had not attended any government sponsored ICT workshop during their teaching professions. All the teachers felt that their teaching would be highly enhanced by ICT integration in teaching and learning. They also expressed their interest in availing themselves for ICT training should an opportunity arise. Based on these findings, it was recommended that there is need for the government to invest more in the training of pre-school teachers in ICT integration.
Key words: information and communication technology (ICT), pre-school children, Pre-school teachers, Teacher training

Vision 2030 reveals the magnitude of wastage in the transition from secondary to University Education. It notes that secondary school enrolment has risen from 112,229 in the 2006/2007 academic year to 118,239 in 2007/2008 academic year; the passage to university is at 3 percent. To raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of university students from the present 3 per cent to the projected 15 per cent, the government must continue increasing the number of students joining higher education from 130,000 (2008) to 450,000 (2015). This can be done by expanding the capacities of existing universities through establishment of new courses in Distance Education. The university of Nairobi school of continuing and distance education runs a course in distance education. It has been observed that many students fail to score a total of 40% in a given course and they re-sit the failed units. The failure rate goes up to 63% with 27% out of 38% cases, which is a very high failure rate. High failure rate and the ever increasing time taken to graduate is a chronic problem in Distance learning. One of the reasons why there could be poor performance is lack of quality time in reading. It is therefore worth knowing how efficiency in distance learning can be enhanced. To find out the effect of reading skills on academic performance a study was carried out. A total number of 650 students were selected using stratified random sampling technique. This sample was taken from 4,500 University of Nairobi students who were registered for B.Ed degree in different levels of study in the school of continuing and distance Education. A mixed mode method approach was used in data collection. Correlational research design was employed in data analysis. Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between reading skills and academic performance. The analysis indicated a strong relationship between reading skills and academic [r= 0.569]. The value of r2 =0.324, indicated that reading skills accounts for about 32.4% of the variation in average performance.
Key words reading skills:, Distance Learning

Vision 2030 reveals the magnitude of wastage in the transition from secondary to University Education. It notes that secondary school enrolment has risen from 112,229 in the 2006/2007 academic year to 118,239 in 2007/2008 academic year; the passage to university is at 3 percent. To raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of university students from the present 3 per cent to the projected 15 per cent, the government must continue increasing the number of students joining higher education from 130,000 (2008) to 450,000 (2015). This can be done by expanding the capacities of existing universities through establishment of new courses in Distance Education. The University of Nairobi’s School of Continuing and Distance Education runs a course in distance education. It has been observed that many students fail to score a total of 40% in a given course and they re-sit the failed units. The failure rate goes up to 63% with 27% out of 38% cases, which is a very high failure rate. High failure rate and the ever increasing time taken to graduate is a chronic problem in Distance learning. One of the reasons why there could be poor performance is lack of quality time in reading. It is therefore worth knowing how efficiency in distance learning can be enhanced. To find out the effect of time management of academic performance a study was carried out. A total number of 650 students were selected using stratified random sampling technique. This sample was taken from 4,500 University of Nairobi students who were registered for B.Ed degree in different levels of study in the school of continuing and distance Education. A mixed mode method approach was used in data collection. Correlational research design was employed in data analysis. Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between time management and academic performance. The analysis indicated a strong relationship between time management and academic [r= 0.569]. The value of r2 =0.324, indicated that time management accounts for about 32.4% of the variation in average performance.
Key words: Time management, Distance Learning

It is undisputed that success or failure of any organization depends on its leadership. School efficiency that is measured by factors such as students’ academic performance and discipline is not an exception. A lot of blame has been attributed to the leadership styles used by the secondary school principals. This has created disharmony between the principals and other stakeholders. Scholars have tried to establish the kind of leadership behaviour that would enhance efficiency in organizations. One kind of leadership behaviour that has been a topic of debate among scholars for the past decade is transformational leadership. Whether or not this kind of leadership is present in principals who have been in the profession for long or less years would be of interest to many scholars. This study endeavoured to establish the differences between transformational leadership practices by school principals based on their professional experience in selected secondary schools in Kenya. The participants were administered Kouzes and Posner’s leadership Practices Inventory which identified the principal leadership practices in each of the five dimensions of “challenging the process”, “inspiring a shared vision”, “enabling others to act”, “modeling the way” and “encouraging the heart”. The sample consisted of 387 participants from 49 secondary schools in Kenya. Leadership behaviour was measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory-(“Self” and “others”). The findings indicated that principals who had professional experience of less than one year scored higher in three transformational leadership practices (modeling the way, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart) than their counterparts who had over 9 years of professional experience. Pearson correlation showed a positive statistical significant correlation professional experience of principals and their LPI scores. It was recommended that there is need for retraining of practicing principals in transformational leadership so that they can match the changing trends in the modern society.

Key words: transformational leadership, challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, encouraging the heart, professional experience

University managers have tried to attain improved access and equity in higher education for development. In recent years, there has been a major shift towards Distance Education as universities strive to attain this goal and to strengthen the social pillar of Kenya Vision 2030 development agenda. Use of ICT in teaching and learning in conventional mode of education was thought to be the means to increase access and equity in higher education but this has not been sufficient. More innovations are being explored as the universities struggle with the challenge of access and equity in higher education. Distance education has slowly been adopted in public universities in Kenya. This provides access to higher education by persons who are geographically distant from the institutions of higher learning and those whose responsibilities cannot allow them to attend classes among other challenges. The study sought to establish the extent to which managers’ level of knowledge in Distance Education has influenced their participation in Distance Education activities at the public universities in Kenya. The sample consisted of 196 managers drawn from seven public universities in Kenya. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used in analysis. The results indicated a significant positive correlation between level of knowledge in Distance Education and managers’ participation in Distance Education activities. Based on these findings, it is important to ensure that the managers are trained in Distance Education and its practice, and how to apply it in order to improve access and equity in higher education in order to support the national and international development agenda.
KEY WORDS: Participation, distance education, level of knowledge, university managers, study support, access and equity.

This study explored the relationship between transformational leadership characteristics of secondary school principals’ and students’ academic performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Although transformational leadership had been linked with academic performance in developed countries, the study attempted to investigate which specific characteristics could be attributed to improved academic performance in Kenya. The study was carried out in Nairobi County, Kenya. Stratified sampling process was used to ensure that both public and private schools in Nairobi were captured in the study. Leadership behaviour was measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory-(“Self” and “others”) (Kouzes & Posner, 1993). Correlational research design was employed in data analysis. Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between transformational leadership characteristics and academic performance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test if a relationship existed between selected demographic characteristics and the interaction of leadership characteristics of principals’ and students’ academic performance. To test relationships between principals’ ratings and teachers’ ratings, ratings of male principals and female principals, t-test was used. Results indicated a positive correlation of “Inspiring a shared vision”, “Encouraging the heart” and “Challenging the process” characteristics and academic performance. There was however, a weak but not statistically significant correlation between “Modeling the way” and “Enabling others to act” characteristics and academic performance. It was recommended that secondary school principals should exhibit transformational leadership characteristics in order to succeed in today’s changing world of educational leadership. Suggestions made for further studies included a replication of the study in more counties.

A number of studies have identified the school principal as a critical and pivotal person for establishing and maintaining learning environments driven by technology. This paper examines the function of school principals as institutional managers and the role they play in the adoption and integration of Information and Communication Technologies in the process of teaching and learning. It was conceptualized that presence of ICT integration plans, maintenance and renewal plans, extent of community access to ICTs and proficiency in ICTs of school managers have an influence on extent of ICT integration in teaching and learning . Ten principals of selected schools and one teachers’ training college from Nairobi and its environs were interviewed. To obtain a detailed and clear picture of the use of ICT, the mixed methods approach was used. Semi directed interviews, focus group discussions audiotapes of discussions, videotaped classroom observations and photographs of school environments, review of school documents on ICT and teacher and student productions were used to collect data. Out of the ten schools studied, five schools had ICT integration and maintenance and renewal plans, while only two schools shared their computers with the community and eight head teachers reported that they had the ability to use ICT skills. From the findings, it appears the development of ICT skills and knowledge among school principals is slow and may explain the low levels of ICT integration in the selected schools. It seems the success or failure of integration of ICT in teaching and learning rests largely on institutional managers and school managers need to take professional responsibility and accountability to ensure that they are well trained in ICT and that their institutions have management strategies to enable them achieve appropriate ICT integration in teaching and learning.

Education is a fundamental human right enshrined in all major United Nations and other international charters, and need to be provided in the most efficient manner. Education has been found to play a major role in social, political, economic and cultural perspectives of a country (Mbeche and Ndiritu, 2005). It is therefore important to find out how education can be achieved in the most efficient manner. Like any other organization, the success and failure of the school is associated with the quality of its leadership (Schultz (2003). Scholars have tried to establish the kind of leadership behaviour that would enhance efficiency in organizations (Kouzes and Posner, 2002). The current study links transformational leadership with school efficiency. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between transformational leadership styles of secondary school principals and school efficiency as measured by academic performance and discipline in Nairobi Province. Kouze’s and Posner’s Leadership Practice Inventory(LPI) was used to measure the transformational leadership styles of school principals while information on school discipline and academic performance was gathered from the questions attached to the LPI. Data was analysed by the use of Pearson correlation coefficient and ANOVA. The findings indicated that transformational leadership is correlated with the two variables. The findings of also provide implications for the leadership of secondary school principals as they practice transformational leadership in their schools. This has a direct implications for institutions that prepare secondary school principals to come up with programs that will enhance secondary school principals skills to create learning organizations Secondary school principals must exhibit strong leadership skills in all five of the practice areas measured by the Leadership Practices Inventory in order to succeed in today’s high stress and ever-changing world of educational leadership..

Kenya’s Vision 2030 requires a functionally literate adult population which can effectively contribute to economic production and participate in the democratic processes of the country. It is unfortunate that the 7.8 million (38.5%) of Kenya’s adult population is still illiterate (Kenya literacy survey 2007). With this current situation, adult learner retention should hold the attention of all adult educators in every type of program. The rate of relapsing into illiteracy is also high. An estimated 33.6% of those surveyed who indicated to have completed primary level education were found to be illiterate at the time of the survey. According to the Kenya National Adult Literacy Survey (2007) only 29.6% of the 61.5% literate adults had attained the desired mastery level of literacy and would therefore be considered able to participate effectively in the realization of this Vision. This study examined the fit of the transformational/transactional leadership paradigm to voluntary adult educators in Eastern Province, Kenya. The study also sort to establish whether the leadership style had any effect on the rate of drop out among adult learners in the same province. The sample consisted of 104 voluntary adult educators of the certificate in adult education and community development class of the University of Nairobi (Meru class) The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form 5X was administered to the sample during the face to face session that took place at a Mulanthakari multi-purpose hall to determine the effect of perceived District Adult Educator leadership on the outcome variables of effectiveness, satisfaction and adult learners drop out rate in the district. Multivariate statistical techniques were used to analyze the transformational leadership variables: idealized influence (attributed), idealized influence (behavioral), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration. The results of the study were consistent with previously published studies and demonstrates the applicability of the transformational leadership paradigm to adult education in eastern province.

INTRODUCTION
Kenya as an East African country is bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. It has an area of 581,677 sq km. The capital city is Nairobi. The country is divided into eight provinces namely Coast, Central, Eastern, Nairobi, Nyanza, North Eastern, Rift Valley and Western.

CURRENT SITUATION OR PRACTICE OF ALLL
According to the Kenya National Adult Literacy Survey (2006), 38.5 per cent or 7.8 million of the Kenyan Adult population is illiterate. The results of the National Adult literacy survey 2007 indicate that urban adult population that is literate is higher at 79.9 per cent compared to the rural adult population at 58.7 per cent.

SUCCESSES AND PROBLEMS
Several innovations have taken place in the field of adult literacy. These include, the implementation of the post literacy programs as a continuation of basic literacy. For example, many post literacy programs have been established in the several districts and such as Machakos, Homa Bay and Malindi.

There has been an improvement on the learner generated materials LGMS- Primers that are written by the community itself. This makes the reading materials relevant and interesting to the learners. There has been establishment of community libraries and mobile literacy classes in pastoral communities. In 2003, when the government of Kenya declared free primary education, there the oldest pupil in the Guiness book of record Mzee Kimani Nganga Maruge joined the formal education system at the age of 83.

The Purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination in selected secondary schools in Nairobi and Central Provinces. The research was intended to find out whether good academic performance could be attributed to specific factors that are present in the schools performing relatively better. The major factor considered in this study KCSE performance. The literature review was divided into four subheadings: effect of school-related factors on academic performance, effect of non-school factors on academic performance, effect of student-related factors on performance and effect of motivational factors on performance. From the literature review, a conceptual framework was designed. The conceptual framework showed variables (inputs) and their expected directional effect on each other on the outputs (performance). The study used expost facto research design. The sample consisted of 32 headteachers, 575 teachers and 773 students. The data was analyzed and interpreted using descriptive statistics and the chi-square statistical test which was accompanied by a contingency coefficient. The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between the condition of school facilities, as perceived by headteachers, and students’ academic performance in KCSE. The study also revealed that students’ KCPE entry marks, headteachers’ frequency of holding staff meetings, students’ socioeconomic background, teachers academic qualification, teachers’ workload, involvement of teachers in administrative decision-making, method used to solve teachers’ problems, headteachers’ frequency of holding meetings with parents, frequency of headteachers’ meetings with form four students, teachers’ attendance of in-service training and promptness of school fees payment were significant in determining KCSE performance. The factors that were not found to be statistically significant in determining KCSE performance were teaching of extra hours and reinforcement by parents on their children. Based on these findings it was recommended that there is need for headteachers to hold frequent staff meetings in which problems and progress of the school could be discussed. It was also recommended that there is need to encourage bursary schemes to cater for students who come from low socioeconomic background. Finally it was recommended that there is need for headteachers to involve parents in school activities and need to convert day schools into boarding schools.