Relationship between School Management Practices and Implementation of Safety Guidelines on Drug Abuse in Secondary Schools in Gilgil Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the Kenyan government providing legislation, the problem of drug abuse is still prevalent among students in secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between school management practices and implementation of safety guidelines on drug abuse in secondary schools in Gilgil Sub-county, Kenya. The study aimed to establish the relationship between staff and students training on safety guidelines on drug abuse in secondary schools in Gilgil Sub-County. It was guided by the Open System Theory. The school was viewed as an open system. This study used correlational design. The sample size was 16 Principals, 17 deputy principals, 17 heads of guidance and counselling departments and 304 students. The tools used in the study were an interview schedule for Principals and a questionnaire for students, Deputy Principals and Heads of guidance and counselling department. Piloting was conducted in three secondary schools, which were not part of the study in Gilgil Sub-County. Cronbach alpha of 0.726 was obtained confirming that the instruments used were reliable and valid. Data collected was analyzed and the hypothesis tested at 95% confidence level, with 0.05 as the level of significance. From the inferential statistic, result of model summary, indicated that Pearson coefficient r was 0.422 and the coefficient of determination R-squared was 0.178. The ANOVA test indicated that the value of F (1, 32) = 6.952, with p-value= 0.013 < 0.05 significant level. Regression results shows that coefficient of training was -0.102, with t-value = -2.637 and p-value = 0.013< 0.05 significant level. The study findings revealed that there was a significant relationship between training of staff and students on safety guidelines, and implementation of safety guidelines. The study recommended school managers to be more proactive in training the staff and students on safety guidelines to create awareness on drug abuse.