Safety Preparedness of Secondary Schools in Central Highlands of Kenya

School safety is an essential element of the teaching-learning process because it provides an opportunity for students to exploit and maximize their potential for learning, growth and development. The study aimed to investigate safety preparedness of secondary schools in Embu East Sub County, Kenya. The specific objective for the study was to find out the level of awareness of staff regarding school safety. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for descriptive statistics, while the qualitative data was obtained through interviewing individuals using questions developed by the researcher touching on safety awareness. The researcher identified three common themes: the need for policy guidelines on safety preparedness, the need to involve all stakeholders in safety preparedness and the need for prioritization of resources towards implementing school safety policies and programs. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings from this study showed that there is lack of safety preparedness in schools.