East African Journal of Education Studies

Deputy principals play a crucial role in the management of secondary schools. Yet, their performance is often a product of diverse factors, among them being the pressure exerted from frequent performance appraisals. The study investigated the influence of techniques adopted for performance appraisal on the work output of deputy principals in public secondary schools in Nandi-North Sub-County, Kenya. The study was guided by Scientific Management Theory and used ex-post facto design. The target population included 55 principals, 67 deputy principals


INTRODUCTION
Evaluation of individuals in terms of their job performance is a task requiring quality managerial judgment, which places considerable responsibility on the managers involved. It is a delicate and complex task (Cole, 2008). According to Cole, the most likely reason for the adoption of staff appraisal is to draw attention to present performance on the job in order to reward people fairly and to identify those with potential for promotion or transfer. Cole further asserts that appraisal programmes are designed not only to provide more systematic control of the behaviour of subordinates but also to control the behaviour of superiors. In the educational context, just like other actors in the system, deputy principals of schools are expected to show exemplary performance for them to get to be promoted to the next job group.
In Kenya, Rop et al. (2013) established that, like in many developing countries, teacher appraisal has numerous shortcomings and is marked by low effectiveness. The authors observed that performance appraisal merely ensured adherence to rules and regulations and loyalty to principals. Omayo (2010) also established that there existed weaknesses in the rules and regulations of the appraisal process, which makes the policies weak and ineffective in schools. The author suggests that teacher appraisal should be used in the improvement of the quality of teaching and the provision of education to students and pupils. Further, Omayo is of the view that these changes should be intentional, and the appraisal process should be formalised to bring out better outcomes in accountability in order to get better educational outcomes.
The framework for performance management, according to Kenya's Teachers Service Commission, is anchored in the Teachers Service Commission Act (Republic of Kenya, 2012) section 11 (c) and (f), which provides for monitoring of the conduct and performance of teachers in public learning institutions. Therefore, appraisal and contract reports are intended to help TSC in making rational decisions such as the assignment of teachers, deployment to administrative positions, promotion, and training programmes (Kiplang'at, 2016).

Scientific Management Theory
The Scientific Management Theory was advanced by Fredrick Taylor (1856Taylor ( -1915. It advocates for the application of scientific methods to organisational management as a means to maximise output (Taylor, 2004). Accordingly, the role of top management in an organisation is to develop, test and refine the best framework or structures of performance. This role follows four steps. First, the managers are to use science to gauge individual employees' capabilities. Second, they assign work according to employees' capabilities. Third, they are to evaluate employees' performance using scientifically standardised methods. Lastly, work should be fairly distributed between top managers and downline employees. In applying the Scientific Management Theory, the study examined how quality assurance techniques, as a facet of scientific management, influence the performance of deputy principals in secondary schools.

Statement of the Problem
The Government of Kenya implements its regional and global educational commitments locally. Various educational policy documents have emphasised the importance of providing quality education to learners in the country. Such documents include the Teachers Service Commission Act (Republic of Kenya, 2012), which gave the Commission the mandate to monitor the conduct and performance of deputy principals who are in service. In order to comply with the resultsbased monitoring and evaluation framework, the Commission was prompted to introduce Performance Appraisal System for teachers in order to strengthen supervision and monitor their performance in teaching at the school level. Despite the efforts by the government through the Teachers' Service Commission to ensure that the deputy principals deliver quality-teaching services to the learners, some of these deputies seem to resist the monitoring tool provided by the Commission. Manyinsa and Onywecha (2019) assessed the impact of the implementation of teacher performance appraisal and development on the quality of teaching in Narok County in Kenya. The study found that there is phobia towards the appraiser if the appraiser is a colleague. Moreover, the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) implementation is plagued by such challenges as variance in lesson observation and school principals' engagement of technicians to carry out an appraisal. Additionally, some performing schools set their own targets and have abandoned the TPAD tool altogether. These schools instead provide unverified appraisal figures at the end of the term. A study carried out by Ibrahim (2020) in Nyamira on monitoring and evaluation of teacher effectiveness by use of TPAD observed that the tool is used extensively by teachers to improve their efficiency and delivery of learning to students. However, he recommended that the TPAD tool be used in the monitoring of teachers on time management and should be borrowed and applied to other areas of school operations. The recommendations of this research were important as they motivated the researcher to have the desire to examine how deputy principals are subjected to performance appraisal and if they do a timely appraisal or not in public secondary schools in Nandi-North Sub-County.
The above studies focused only on the principals' implementation of TPAD, monitoring, and evaluation of teacher effectiveness. However, few studies have been conducted on the effects of performance and appraisal on school administrators. Therefore, there was a need for further research to evaluate how the implementations of TPAD had been done in other schools across Kenya. This research aimed to fill this gap by assessing the impacts of the TPAD tool on the performance of deputy principals in public secondary schools in Nandi North Sub-County.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Darling-Hammond (2009) carried out descriptive research on professional learning in the learning profession done in the United States. Their study revealed that teachers needed close to 50 hours of professional learning to acquire knowledge and skills that would lead to improved performance in their work. From their findings, this research sought to study different aspects of teaching used by teachers and how the said approaches improved the quality of learning. The study sought to know how the administration in schools engages teachers in the process of appraisal. Opportunities were provided for teachers to process new learning and work on their skills together. The current study, however, sought to establish the deputy principals' performance in their respective schools in Nandi-North Sub-County. Amzat and Omololu (2013), in a study in Nigeria, noted that although some subjects learned in the classroom are fairly established, many areas of most disciplines, for instance, computer science and other technology-related fields of study, are rapidly evolving. With the rise of large content and service providers such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, the proliferation of mobile devices and the spread of connectivity to developing regions looks almost nothing like twenty years ago. Therefore, the application of technologies in education is continually evolving. For this reason, one of the hallmarks of quality assurance is a teacher's or school leader's ability to apply technology effectively to enhance school processes. The study thus underlines the need for deputy principals to apply information and communication technology in-class lessons to help boost academic outcomes. The study also underlines the need to adopt ICTbased appraisal systems in assessing the output of school staff.
Kenya recognises that the education and training of all Kenyans are fundamental to the success of Vision 2030. Education equips citizens with understanding and knowledge that enables them to make informed choices about their lives and those facing Kenyan society. A descriptive study done in Kenya by Ngala and Odebero (2010) on the benefits of professional development found that teachers acquire more knowledge, which can help them to be more productive in the classroom. Therefore, appraisal transforms the teachers' abilities to utilise their available time in the teaching and learning process. This covered the general benefits of professional development, but the current study focused on the influence of teachers' professional knowledge on students' academic performance. Kilimo and Cheboi (2021) conducted a study in public primary schools in the Marakwet East sub-County. It involved 17 head teachers and 117 teachers who were sampled using simple random sampling in the study. It was found that teachers' use of creativity and innovation methods influenced learners' academic achievement. However, the usage of ICT resources was low, and this explained why very few teachers were accessing and utilising online resources for their learners. This was hampered by a lack of adequate infrastructure facilities like computers, internet, electricity, and laptops. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to establish if the appraisal of deputy principals integrates aspects of ICT adoption in education. Chaponda (2014) carried out a study on the effect of performance appraisal on employee motivation in a slum-based non-governmental organisation in Nairobi. The study sought to establish the extent to which performance appraisal processes affect employee motivation and to determine the challenges in appraising employee performance. The study adopted a descriptive research design on a population of three hundred employees of a slumbased NGO. A sample size of 171 was selected using a stratified sampling method. The results showed that the performance appraisal process is important for employee motivation. Performance appraisal system has improved job performance at work, and the performance standards are quantified and pegged against an individual evaluation which is essential for employee motivation. The reviewed study focused on employee motivation and the challenges in appraising employees, whereas the current study focuses on the effect of performance appraisal techniques on deputy principals' job output.
Omboi (2011) studied the effect of the performance appraisal system on employees in the Kenya Tea Development Agency in Meru County, Kenya. The research adopted a descriptive research design where a population of 348, within which 70 respondents were selected using stratified random sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect data. The study established that performance appraisal practices such as the provision of feedback and rewards to employees give employees opportunities to express their ideas freely and expectations for meeting the strategic goals of the company. Odhiambo (2015) carried out a study on the effect of performance management practices on employee productivity with a focus on Schindler Limited. The study investigated the influence of performance appraisal on employee productivity. It also sought to determine the influence of reward systems on employee productivity and to examine the influence of performance feedback on employee productivity. The study concluded that performance management practices such as feedback and rewards give employees opportunities to express their idea and expectations for meeting the strategic goals of the company. Performance management practices could be an effective source of management information and renewal. Effective feedback on performance measurement may translate to improved productivity. Feedback enables the employees to be made aware of what exactly is expected from them. The study recommended that performance management practices be optimised to improve employee performance. Performance review should be focused on the contributions of the individual employees to meet the organisational objectives, and effective performance management practices that edify appraisal reward and feedback should be used to achieve organisation goals and enhance employee productivity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study used an ex-post facto research design. The target population for the study comprised all the principals, deputy principals, and Form Three students in public secondary schools in Nandi-North Sub-County. There were 55 public secondary schools in Nandi-North Sub-County with 55 principals, 67 deputy principals, and 1197 Form three students. The researcher took the recommended (Mugenda & Mugenda, 2003) 30% of the 55 schools to give 16 schools; for each school selected in the sample, the respective principal and deputy principal formed part of the sample. The study adopted Morgan and Krejcie's (1970) formula to sample the students to participate in the study, summing up to 291 students. Therefore, the total sample was 328 comprising 16 principals, 21 deputy principals, and 291 students. Stratified random sampling was used to select schools from the boarding category and those from the Day-schools category. Then the researcher employed simple random sampling to select 5 extra-county schools, 5 county schools and 6 sub-county schools, giving a total of 16 schools. From each of the 16 schools sampled, simple random sampling was employed to select an average of 18 students from the Form three classes, preferably those that were taught by the deputy principals.
The data collection instrument used in the study was a structured questionnaire. There were three sets of questionnaires: a questionnaire for principals, a questionnaire for deputy principals, and a questionnaire for students. The raw data collected from the field was organised, coded, and analysed for it to have meaning. It was then analysed using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation were used. Inferential statistics, especially Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), was used to establish if there was a significant variation in the performance of deputy principals based on the techniques used in performance appraisal.

Techniques of Performance Appraisal and Development
Ideally, performance appraisal is a structured formal interaction between a teacher and principal that usually takes the form of a periodic interview in which the performance of the teacher is examined and discussed with a view of identifying weaknesses and strengths as well as opportunities for improvement and skills development. In Kenya, performance appraisal is done through the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD), which incorporates various techniques such as the use of a checklist, rating techniques, teacher's self-evaluation, performance improvement plan, setting targets, communicating the targets, establishing performance, and giving feedback.
The deputy principals rated how various performance appraisal techniques were applied in their schools, as summarised in Table 1. The scale used was: 1-Very poor, 2-Poor, 3-Fair, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.  The deputy principals were asked to rate the extent to which evaluation of classroom preparation was applied in their schools. In their response, 8(40%) rated it as fair, 7(35%) reported it was good, while 5(25%) said it was very good. Regarding evaluation of classroom presentation, 9(45%) reported that it was very good, 4(20%) said it was good, 3(15%) said it was fair, 2(10%) reported it was poor, and 2(10%) said it was very poor. On setting school targets together, 10(50%) reported that it was fair, 5(25%) said it was good, 3(15%) said it was poor, and 2(10%) reported it was very good.
Regarding communicating the school performance targets effectively, 10(50%) reported that it was good, 9(45%) said it was fair, and 1(5%) said it was very good. On effectiveness of rating techniques, 7(35%) reported that it was fair, 5(25%) said it was good, 5(25%) said it was poor, 2(10%) reported it was very good, and 1(5%) said it was very poor. When the deputy principals were asked to rate the extent to which developing a performance improvement plan was applied, 7(35%) reported that it was fair, 6(30%) said it was good, 3(15%) said it was very poor, 2(10%) reported it was very good, and 2(10%) said it was poor. On staff self-evaluation, 10(50%) said it was good, 9(45%) reported that it was fair, 1(5%) said it was very good. Regarding effective provision of feedback after evaluation, 6(30%) reported that it was good, 5(25%) said it was fair, 4(20%) said it was very poor, 3(15%) reported it was poor and 2(10%) said it was very good.
Instances of poor rating by some deputy principals were on evaluation of classroom presentations, developing a performance improvement plan, and effective provision of feedback after evaluation after performance appraisal. According to Omboi (2011), performance appraisal practices such as the provision of feedback and rewards to employees give employees opportunities to express their ideas freely and expectations for meeting the strategic goals of the company.

Performance of Deputy Principals
Job performance of deputy principals was examined based on the subject mean scores in KCSE, school discipline, participation in co-curricular activities, class attendance and overall lesson delivery. The rating was done by the principals since they were the immediate supervisors of their deputies and by the students who were taught by the deputy principals.
The findings showed that, according to the students, the performance of deputy principals in classroom activities was above average; those who gave low ratings could be because of the deputy principal's involvement in other administrative duties in the school.
The above findings demonstrated that the deputy principal's engagement in co-curricular activities was not appreciated much by the students. The majority of the students were either undecided or disagreed that the deputy principals actively engaged in sports.

Principals' Rating of Performance of Deputy Principals
The principals rated the deputy principals in terms of their effective participation in classroom activities, general school discipline, participation in co-curricular activities, and their performance in other administrative duties. The scale used was: 1-Very poor, 2-Poor, 3-Fair, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent. school games by coaching teams, 6(37.5%) rated it as poor, 5(31.3%) reported that it was fair, 4(25%) said it was good, and 1(6.3%) said it was very good. On participation in music and drama, 8(50%) reported that it was fair, 3(18.8%) said it was good, 3(18.8%) said it was very poor, 1(6.3%) said it was poor, while 1(6.3%) reported it was very good.
Regarding regular attendance in class, 8(50%) reported that it was good, 6(37.5%) reported that it was very good, 1(6.3%) said it was fair, and 1(6.3%) said it was poor. On the management of classroom activities, 6(37.5%) reported that it was good, 5(31.3%) reported that it was fair, 3(18.8%) said it was very good, 1(6.3%) said it was poor while 1(6.3%) said it was very poor.
When the principals were asked to rate the deputy principal's level of lesson preparation, 5(31.3%) reported that it was good, 4(25%) said it was very good, 4(25%) said it was fair, and 3(18.8%) said it was poor. On classroom delivery of the deputy principals, 6(37.5%) of the principals reported that it was good, 5(31.3%) reported that it was fair, and 5(31.3%) said it was very good. Regarding handling parents' issues by the deputy principals, 8(50%) reported that it was good, 4(25%) said it was fair, and 4(20%) said it was very good. Just like the students, the principals acknowledged that their deputies were doing well in class work but with slightly lower scores in participation in sports, music, and drama.

Performance Appraisal Techniques and Deputy Principals' Performance
The study proposed and tested the hypothesis that: There is no significant relationship between techniques of performance appraisal and the performance of deputy principals in Nandi North Sub County. This hypothesis was tested using ANOVA at a 95% confidence interval since the construct of the independent variable was categorical (expressed into five levels) while the performance of deputy principals was expressed in the form of scores which were continuous in nature.  Table 5 shows that F (3, 16) was 11.622 and the pvalue was 0.010. Since the p-value was less than 0.05, there was a significant relationship between techniques of performance appraisal and the performance of deputy principals in Nandi North Sub-County. This was in line with the findings of DeNisi and Murphy (2017) who explained that the frequency of evaluation by the supervisor, identification of goals to eliminate weaknesses, and supervisory knowledge of a subordinate's level of performance and job duties were significantly related to attitudes of fairness and accuracy of performance appraisal. Therefore, according to DeNisi and Murphy, a performance appraisal should be done as frequently as possible. Moreover, the supervisor should work with the subordinate to agree on responsibilities. Lastly, the supervisor should devote sufficient time to observe and evaluate an employee's performance.

CONCLUSION
The evaluation techniques used in schools focus on deputy principals' classroom preparation and classroom presentation, their capacity to set school targets together, provision of feedback to teachers after evaluation and communicating the school performance targets effectively. Schools also use performance improvement plans, rating techniques, and staff self-evaluation. The performance of the deputy principals is low, particularly in classroom presentation, developing performance improvement plans and effective provision of feedback after performance appraisal. The deputy principals' engagement in co-curricular activities is low. This situation could be because deputy principals play other administrative roles in schools, including promoting discipline among students.

Recommendations
Staff evaluation is a very critical routine in the school calendar. It is a valuable period for administrators to improve instruction and learning. Before initiating evaluation, it is important to sit with staff to discuss the objectives and criteria of evaluation, as well as the expected consequences, both positive and negative, of evaluation. School administrators should regularly review performance appraisal techniques to identify strengths and weaknesses. Early communication of impending appraisal can also help the staff prepare for evaluation. Feedback after evaluation should be prompt to calm the employee's anxiety and enable them to make urgent changes based on the findings of the appraisal.