Principals’ Capacity Building Strategies and Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma Central Sub-County, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to evaluate principals’ capacity building strategies on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Bungoma Central Sub-County, Kenya. Persistent poor performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in the sub-county, despite the emphasis placed on quality education under the National Education Sector Strategic Plan (2023-2024), prompted an inquiry into how principals’ professional development initiatives for teachers influenced learner outcomes. The study adopted a descriptive survey design anchored on the Human Relations Theory and targeted a population of 11,238 respondents comprising 47 principals, 699 teachers and 10,492 students in 47 public secondary schools. Using Cochran and Yamane’s (1967) formula at a 95% confidence level, a sample of 386 respondents was drawn, and data were collected using questionnaires and interview schedules, achieving a 94% response rate (321 respondents). Descriptive findings established that 83.2% of respondents confirmed that principals organized professional development programmes for teachers, with in-service training workshops (87.6%) and peer learning sessions (79.4%) being the most common activities, while 86.6% of respondents reported that capacity building had improved academic performance. Simple linear regression results revealed that capacity building had a statistically significant positive effect on students’ academic performance (β=0.468, t=9.649, p=0.000), explaining 21.9% of the variance in performance (R²=0.219, F=93.103, p=0.000). The null hypothesis that capacity building has no significant effect on students’ academic performance was consequently rejected. The study concluded that principals’ investment in structured, regular, and practice-oriented professional development for teachers is a critical lever for improving students’ academic achievement, and recommended that principals institutionalize termly capacity building programmes supported by adequate resources and follow-up mentorship.