The Practice of School Improvement Program in Government Secondary Schools of Bench Maji Zone and Its Contributing Factors

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to assess the Performance of School Improvement Plans in Government Secondary Schools of Bench Maji Zone: Its practices and Contributing Factors and recommend appropriate intervention mechanisms. A descriptive survey design was employed with the intention to get the general picture on the practice of School Improvement Plan of secondary schools in Bench Maji zone. The research methods employed in this research were both quantitative and qualitative. The data for this study were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Student, school principals, zone educational department heads, school supervisors, members of PTA, teachers, unit leaders, vice principals and department heads were used as primary sources of data. Probability sampling (simple random sampling) was applied to select 4 out of 11 secondary schools. Moreover, simple random sampling was applied to select vice principals, unit leaders, and department heads from the selected schools. Questionnaires were self-developed and a total of 87 questionnaires were distributed and out of which 76 (87%) were correctly filled, returned and used for analysis in this study. The data analyzed showed that internal environmental analyses (of strengths and weaknesses) were not thoroughly examined before SIP was developed and implemented in the schools.Observation of school plans showed that the schools were moderately setting realizable vision. But the visions were not set before doing a well thought self-assessment. Principals of the schools were more or less contributing to the practices of their school plans. On the other hand, staff members were weakly contributing to effectiveness of the performance of School Improvement Program of the schools. Therefore, it can be concluded that both the overall practices School Improvement Program as well as the contribution of key stakeholders were less than the expected level. Finally, the researcher recommended that all the schools need to initially and carefully identify their statuses and then their key stakeholders and establish networked linkages and secure not only strong but also consistent participation of the duty bearers throughout the entire process of their performance plans.