Assessment of Board of Management’s Facility Maintenance Practices on Effective Governance of Public Primary Schools in Nyeri County, Kenya

Providing successful educational programmes requires effective governance in the provision and maintenance of facilities. Although public primary schools have Boards of Management (BOM) that act as supervisors, their effectiveness needs to be ascertained. The purpose of this study was to assess the BOM’s facility maintenance practices concerning the effective governance of public primary schools in Nyeri County, Kenya. The study was grounded in Agency Theory and adopted a descriptive research design. The target population consisted of 352 public primary schools and 352 chairpersons of the Board of Management. Using the Yamane Table (1967), a sample size of 78 BOM chairpersons was selected. A questionnaire containing both closed-ended and open-ended items was used to collect data from the BOM chairpersons. Descriptive analyses were performed on the quantitative data, while content analysis was applied to the qualitative data. The study revealed that 76.2% of respondents agreed, while 23.8% disagreed that the Board of Management had significantly contributed to the provision and maintenance of school facilities. However, there was a notable gap in the availability and maintenance of modern technological infrastructure, where only 56.4% agreed, highlighting the need for strategic investment in digital learning tools. The study concluded that the physical environment is an essential aspect of creating a conducive learning atmosphere, and its maintenance plays a pivotal role in supporting effective school governance. The study recommends prioritising targeted investment in technological infrastructure to bridge the gap between traditional and modern resources. This study will be significant to education stakeholders as it provides useful information on effective governance.