Infrastructure and culture as competitive advantage in enhancing secondary school’s performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination in Kenya. A case of Bungoma County

Secondary schools incubate and hatch the youth from their teens and transform them into adults in pursuit of vocational and academic careers in the Kenyan economy. The success of a secondary school is determined by the performance of its students in Kenya certificate of secondary examination. Each secondary school should identify its competitive advantage that would help it to ensure high performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE). This study aimed at examining school infrastructure and culture as competitive advantage that would enhance school’s performance in KCSE. The study used descriptive survey design. The target population was 4112 encompassing major stakeholders in the provision of education. Sample of the study was 317. Stratified random sampling was applied to pick 84 principals, 118 school board members and 115 Parent and Teachers Association (PTA) members as respondents for the study. Questionnaires were used to collect data analyzed using SPSS computer processing package. The study found that well established school culture and infrastructure enhance school’s performance in KCSE. ICT did not show any significant contribution to schools’ KCSE performance in Bungoma


Introduction
Before the coming of Europeans, Kenyan society had informal type of education. There were no classrooms and no special class of people called teachers. All members of the community were involved in the education of children. The foundation of modern education was laid by missionaries who introduced reading and writing in spreading of Christianity. After attainment of independence in 1963 the Kenya Government embarked on speeding up education by establishing more primary and secondary schools. By 1963 there were about 151 secondary schools in Kenya with pupils' enrolment of 30120. Currently (2017) there are about 8592 public secondary schools with enrolment of about 2.5million pupils. Kenya has prioritized education at all levels. Education is the key to social and economic development. Secondary school education in Kenya aims at meeting the needs of students who terminate their education after secondary school and also those who proceed on to tertiary education. The national examination conducted in secondary schools in Kenya is called Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE). In this examination, the average grade is based on performance in seven subjects. University admission is based on the best seven subjects and performance in particular subjects.

Feb 2018
Page: 334 6470 | www.ijtsrd.com | Volume -2 | Issue -2 Scientific (IJTSRD) International Open Access Journal Infrastructure and culture as competitive advantage in enhancing secondary school's performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination in Kenya.
Before the coming of Europeans, Kenyan society had informal type of education. There were no classrooms and no special class of people called teachers. All members of the community were involved in the education of children. The foundation of modern ion was laid by missionaries who introduced reading and writing in spreading of Christianity. After attainment of independence in 1963 the Kenya Government embarked on speeding up education by establishing more primary and secondary schools. By were about 151 secondary schools in Kenya with pupils' enrolment of 30120. Currently (2017) there are about 8592 public secondary schools with enrolment of about 2.5million pupils. Kenya has prioritized education at all levels. Education is the key al and economic development. Secondary school education in Kenya aims at meeting the needs of students who terminate their education after secondary school and also those who proceed on to tertiary education. The national examination schools in Kenya is called Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE). In this examination, the average grade is based on performance in seven subjects. University admission is based on the best seven subjects and performance in

IV.
Operational definition of terms used in the study  Competitive advantage: Competitive advantage is a situation whereby a secondary school attributes allows it to perform better than other schools by achieving a higher mean score in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination.
 School infrastructure: School infrastructure include classrooms, dormitory and laboratories for science practical  School Culture: School culture includes norms and rituals that bring sense of belonging, participation, peer relationship, work habits, social courtesy and a strong commitment to academic achievement.

Literature Review (i) Theoretical Review
Competitive advantage exists when the firm is able to deliver the same benefits as competitors but at a lower cost (cost advantage), or deliver benefits that exceed those of competing products (product differentiation advantage). Competitive advantage enables the firm to create superior value for its products and services thus, higher profit for itself and higher customer satisfaction. Resource-based view emphasizes that a firm utilizes its resources and capabilities to create a competitive advantage that ultimately results to superior value creation.
Sustainable competitive advantage is the prolonged benefit of implementing some unique values thus creating a unique combination of internal organizational resources and capabilities that cannot be replicated by competitors. The strategy applied here is creating products, processes and services that cannot be matched by competitors and coming up with ways of sustaining it. day formal teaching and learning takes place. From libraries learners get the opportunity to conduct their own personal studies or research. Extra-curricular activities take place in the field. Teachers and students need to be housed in the school and at the same time need sanitation facilities like toilet, waste disposal services, clean water etc. For this reason, school infrastructure is a very important component in ensuring successful school performance in both internal and national exams. Karimi (2011) identified strong relationship between science laboratories, text-books and classrooms with students' performance in KSCE. Schools with these facilities perform better in exams than those without. Experience and high qualification of teachers contribute to higher performance of students in national examinations but Ambogo (2012) found significant difference in schools performance in KSCE despite the schools having the same type of teachers in terms of education level and teaching experience.
According to Mong'are (2011) the management of physical resources is a crucial aspect of the overall management of a school. The physical resources play a key role in the attainment of the school's intended objectives. A direct correlation exists between quality of school facilities provided and performance in national examinations. Proper management of physical resources therefore makes a school to stay on top at KCSE performance. According to Okeno (2011) favorable attitude towards school infrastructure and quality facilities promote performance in secondary school examination.
The Kenya Education Staff Institute KESI (2011) highlights the importance of information and communication Technology (ICT) in education. Beside effective teaching /learning, using ICT can help to improve teacher and student skills and performance. It can also help to maintain high quality teaching /learning while cutting down on teaching and using cheaper aids. ICT applications improve teacher and student motivation. It makes teaching and learning more varied and interesting thereby enhancing sustained performance in examinations.
Schools with adequate teaching and learning materials perform better in examinations. According to (Kosgey et al 2006) it is costly to construct or expand schools. Disbursement of free secondary school funds poses a challenge as schools in remote areas receive the government funds at the end of the term instead of beginning of the term. According to Glewwe and Jacoby (2005) many students in developing countries travel long distances to attend schools. This affects their performance in school.

(iv)
The role of the School Culture on performance According to Omusonga, Kazadi and Indoshi (2006) school culture refers to a set of accepted beliefs and norms that govern people's conduct in a school. Schools with a culture that favors teachers' capacity building, parental involvement, career guidance and counseling, teaching and learning tend to have high expectations for and recognition of academic and cocurricular achievement. Such schools tend to perform better in the national examinations. Schools with a culture that emphasizes on good instructional policies perform better in KCSE compared to those which have weak instructional policies (Mwangi 2011).
The Character Education Partnership (CEP, 2010) points out that, education in Kenya is at defining moment. Successful schools foster both academic excellence and ethics. Such schools have positive culture. A positive school culture is broadly defined to include the school wide ethos and the culture of individual students, high expectations for learning and achievement, a safe and caring environment, shared values and relational trust, a powerful pedagogy and curriculum, high students motivation and engagement, a professional faculty culture and partnership with families and the community. Character includes treating others with respect and commitment to quality. A true school character has a school culture that requires the best out of students and teachers in both realms-doing one's best work and being one's best ethical self.
Performance excellence and ethical excellence are born from a culture. Berger (2003) observed that students' achievement and character are shaped by the culture around them. Regardless of their background, when students enter a culture that demands and support quality work and moral character they tend to fit into that culture. Once they enter a school culture with a powerful virtuous ethics that ethics becomes their norm. Darcia (2010) argues that positive school climate meets students' needs for belonging, competence and autonomy. She says student motivation and learning produce the best results. Positive school culture is The secret of remaining top in co-curricular according to the school principal Minishi is pegged on the belief that success attracts more success. Kakamega high school has a history, a tradition of success in the area of soccer and rugby upon subsequent generations of teachers and students. The school also boasts of excellence in academic world .

(iv) Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework shows the relationship between independent variables, dependant variables and intervening variables. School infrastructure and culture are the independent variables, KCSE performance is the dependant variable while intervening variables are government policies, entry points, discipline and school leadership style.   Stratified sampling was used to select respondents for each sub-County. Therefore, respondents selected were 84 Principals, 118 SBM and 115 PTAs. Total of 317 respondents. Simple random sampling was used to pick respondents from each sub-County.

(ii) Data Collection
Questionnaires were used for data collection. The study used descriptive survey design

Data analysis, interpretation and presentation
Response rate.
Out of the 317 questionnaires that were distributed to the respondents, 296 (93.4%) were returned dully filled.

(i) The role of Public Secondary School infrastructure on KCSE Performance in Bungoma County
The respondents were requested to show the level of availability of infrastructural facilities in relation to KCSE percentage mean score in their secondary schools. The facilities considered were;-ICT laboratories, science laboratories, library/classrooms, dormitories, play-grounds, water/electricity and teachers' houses.

 ICT Laboratories and school performance
The study sought to find out whether ICT had significant influence in schools' performance in KCSE. The respondent schools with adequate ICT facilities had percentage mean score of 49% in KCSE while those with inadequate ICT laboratories had a percentage mean score of 51% in KCSE. The study did not find significant relationship between KSCE performance and ICT application in Bungoma County.

 Science laboratory and KCSE performance
The study sought to find out whether Science laboratory influences schools' KCSE performance.
The respondent schools which had adequately equipped Science laboratory their Percentage mean score was 56% while the schools with poorly equipped science laboratories had a percentage mean score of 40%. The study found strong relationship between well equipped science laboratory and school's performance in KCSE.
 Well equipped library and schools' performance in KCSE The respondent schools which had well equipped libraries had a percentage mean score of 58% in KSCE performance while those with poorly equipped libraries had percentage mean score of 38%. This indicates that there is a strong correlation between school's performance in KCSE and the level of learning facilities in the school library in Bugoma County.
 Dormitory and its influence on school's performance in KCSE.
The study aimed at finding out whether dormitories influence the school performance in KCSE.
The responded schools which had dormitories for their students had percentage mean score of 56 % while the schools without dormitories for their students had percentage mean score of 44% in KCSE performance. This shows that the students who are boarded in school perform better in KCSE than day students (students who do not sleep in school but go home after official class hours) .This is because the students who are boarded in school have more organized study hours than the day scholars.
(ii) The School Culture and KCSE performance.
The study sought to find out whether school culture has any influence on KCSE performance in Bungoma County. The items considered were:- The study also found strong relationship between school culture and KCSE performance. The schools with more parental involvement in school matters, strong desire for academic achievement, discipline, and team-work among students and teachers performed better in KCSE.

Recommendation
The schools which build their competitive advantage on infrastructure and healthy culture compete more favorably with greater success and less difficulties. School management should provide diverse appropriate quality resources and an enabling environment to enable the students excel in their exams. Students, teachers, parents and all other school stakeholders should be encouraged to work as a team for better KCSE results. The ICT application in Bungoma County secondary schools should be boosted and used in curriculum delivery.