Investigating school improvement planning and implementation in public Junior High Schools in Gomoa West and Central Districts

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the phenomenon of school ineffectiveness resulting from ineffective school improvement planning and implementation and how this affects academic achievement in public JHSs in the Gomoa West and Central districts. The Embedded mixed method design was employed for the study. The population of the study were Education stakeholders (E.g., School Improvement Support Officers (SISOs) and Planning officers from the Education Directorates; PA Chairpersons from Parent Associations; SMC Chairpersons from School Management Committees, Headteachers and teachers) of Gomoa West and Central districts. A sample size of 286 was selected for the entire study. Sampling techniques employed included purposive sampling, quota sampling, census sampling, and simple random sampling. Questionnaires and semi-structured interview guides were the tools used in gathering quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Quantitative data was analysed through Pearson correlation coefficient. Thematic analysis was employed in analysing qualitative data. The study revealed that there is a relationship between stakeholder collaboration in planning and academic achievement but this relationship could be positive or negative depending on the context of the school. The study showed further that schools in the two districts accessed have become ineffective because school improvement planning and implementation are feeble. The needed collaboration to spice up the planning process has not been encouraging because commitment level of some of the stakeholders was low. This has negatively impacted on the kind of school improvement programmes run in the schools within the accessed districts. The study concluded that stakeholder collaboration in planning could be part of the factors causing poor academic achievement in schools but not the only causative factor. It was recommended, among others, that the government should revise its policy on public school management to give more powers to education directorates and headteachers to initiate programmes to improve schools. Furthermore, it was recommended that schools and district education directorates engage in more dialogue and consultations to get stakeholders to show more commitment to the activities of the schools. The study generally implied that educational leaders need to explore the specific causes of non-performance in JHSs and work on them, in order to experience a positive correlation between stakeholder collaboration in planning and academic achievement.