SIGNIFICANCE OF FORMAL EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION
Formal education is significant ; acting as one of the sources through which people acquire knowledge ,skills and attitudes about different things in life. Nonetheless, this imperative function has not been achieved to the desirable level as it faces many barriers resulting from variety of aspects linking with the educational sector. These generally take account of: making the curriculum relevant for social progress and strengthening the links between educational system and the world of work : ability to balance resource allocations within the sector between infrastructure, building, teachers, students and other components of educational institutions: curricular development: innovations in teaching methods: organization and management amid other aspects.
In Kenya, educational institutions (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary institutions) do not hold still the precise study that enable generalizations and formulas for their management to be perfected or at least improved. Taking into account the magnitude of mismanagement in the educational sector, I have chosen human resource (HR) mismanagement (which involves more than merely the management of the institutional staff as it covers the processes of founding institutional relations, training and development, staff resourcing, employee welfare as well as rewarding them) as the viewpoint regarding this research.
This investigation has three major phases and seeks to underscore the factors epitomizing HR mismanagement in the Kenyan education sector ; focusing on aspects of the mismanagement; effects of the mismanagement and the plausible counteractive procedures regarding the mismanagement.
IMPROPER MANPOWER PLANNING
Manpower planning regarding teaching staff in the educational sector remains one of the key roles of the administrators in these institutions. Besides, the Teachers Service Commission draws up rules, which govern both recruitment as well as Career-related matters pertaining to the educational sector. Despite the fact that these rules are laid out, they are scarcely applied thus facilitating capacity-imbalance regarding teaching staff and learners.
The capacity-imbalance takes two dimensions: understaffing or overstaffing of the teachers.
Understaffing is typified by teaching ineffectiveness as a result of the number of students surpassing that of teachers to unmanageable levels. Thus, available members of the teaching staff are strained in their quest to clear up the syllabus on time. Correspondingly, the students are assigned too much academic workload which only worsens the situation.
Overstaffing, on the other hand, is characterized by unnecessarily excess teaching staff in some of the educational institutions. The immediate effect is absence of definite roles to the excess teaching staff members. Yet, overstaffing results from lack of emphasis on the recruitment procedures as outlined by the Teacher Service Commission.
Counteractive measures to improper manpower planning
Maximizing staff use requires a thorough understanding of the options open in respect to staff deployment, of projected requirements expressed quantitatively and qualitatively, and of what either is currently or will become available. In the Education sector, various forecasting tools are available to the planner including simulation models. The forecasting of staff requirements in the country is complicated by weak data bases; the multiplicity of teaching categories; the lack of viable measures to determine non-teaching staff needs; the general absence of career planning data; inequitable geographical staff distribution; and annual budgeting methods.
REPREHENSIBLE PROMOTION OF TEACHERS
Whether in the form of a higher grade or a within-grade step, promotions are regarded as the right of all educational teaching staff inasmuch as they increase staff motivation and improve job performance. Staff rotation in the educational sector may occur either within a specific service (through promotion) or geographically as a result of a re-assignment.
The process of selecting staff in the sector for promotional reasons ought to follow the Teachers Service Commission procedures. These measures are applicable to all members of the commission and they basically require that would-be employees enter into an open competition to fill a vacant post. Nevertheless, such procedures have scarcely been adopted reports on the process reveal that nepotism tribalism and corruption are major determinants.
Counteractive measures to reprehensible promotion of teachers
Possibilities for profession advancement should be available to teachers throughout their careers, be they in the form of promotion by grade or step, change of discipline or service, both within and outside the Ministry. Promotion as a consequence of a change of specialization is possible following appropriate study and certification.
What is more, competition for a staff post ought to go through three stages before confirmation of appointment: advertising the vacancy including the job description, the terms and other particulars of the competition; drawing up a short list of candidates showing the greatest promise for the assignment and organizing an interview session for those who have been selected.
Confirmation of the appointment should then be given at the end of the interviews and published as stated in the TSC constitution:
‘Thereafter the evaluation of qualified persons for the existing vacancies, publication of their names shall follow in the daily newspapers seven (7) days after the date of interview…’(CAP 22, section 4(i))
Promotion on the other hand takes into account length of service and the individual’s skills in relation to defects expended responsibilities in relation to those set forth in the job description
INAPT TEACHERS’ COMPENSATION
Education Ministry staff salaries, like those of all other civil servants, are calculated on the basis of a system of points assigned to each grade and step. Salary levels are normally set on the basis of profession, level of responsibility, and steps based on years of service. The monetary value of each point/grade is normally common throughout the entire Teachers Service system.
A teacher’s salary, as stated in TSC’s policies, ought to be made up of the base salary and special assignment allowances minus whatever is withheld as a contribution to the Pension Fund or to pay income taxes.
However, the current teachers’ reward policies are inappropriate as the salaries do not accurately reflect national economic realities like the level of national development (GNP per capita income), the cost of living, salaries of comparable specialists working elsewhere and the like.
A number of factors make it possible to confirm the above contention: among them are the difference between the beginning and end-of career salaries and the average salary: per capita GNP ratio. What emerges is that the salary: GNP ratio is relatively low in higher income countries and low in poorer countries such as Kenya.
The outcome of the challenge is continuous halt in the education system as teachers organizations such as KNUT(Kenya National Union of Teachers) and KUPPET(Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers) call for their members to strike so that the government and TSC addresses issues relating to their salaries.
Inapt staff compensation counteractive measures
The issue of rewarding educational staff is quite contentious and has been the major hallmark behind of teacher strike. Hence, there is need for TSC, KNUT, KUPPET as well as the government, in unison, to deliberate on the pressing concerns relating to teachers’ salaries and other deserved benefits. Indeed, Pragmatic compensation will motivate the teaching staff and general workforce by adding value to performance via equitable distribution of benefits improves performance output.
LACK OF TEACHERS’ TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Maximizing teacher competency should be the starting point for any education reform. Unfortunately, the HR management in the educational sector has failed to grasp the significance of staff retraining needs.
The concept generally adopted by the Teacher Service Commission of Kenya covers not only pre-service training but regular in-service training for all teachers throughout the entire span of their careers. Regrettably, the set up teacher training programmes are ineffective due to many drawbacks that need to be addressed.
In-service training, however, while arguably a powerful tool to raise competency levels and keep teachers abreast of new trends in education, occupies at best a modest place in educational sector. Moreover, funds earmarked for in-service training are, generally speaking, inadequate. Finally, scheduling times when teachers can attend in-service training sessions along with finding their temporary replacements are also obstacles that have yet to be over-come.
Correspondingly, pre-service training typically targets the learning of the various subject matters and generally neglects the pedagogical and practical aspects of teaching. To the extent that it fails to incorporate the specificity of difficult urban and rural contexts, it may indeed be completely cut off from field realities. Unrelated to in-service training possibilities, it is not part and parcel of a global vision of teacher preparation and support.
Certainly, , the on-going educational development of the teaching staff in Kenya is just but a work in progress since neither the means nor the ends have been clarified in any operational way. In the absence of both clear conceptual framework as well as linkage between pre- and in-service training programmes for the teaching profession, complicates the task of defining both content and delivery systems and of programming them in a manner that benefits teachers throughout their careers.
Counteractive measures to lack of teachers’ training and development
Teacher training thus needs to be re-examined in the contact of constantly changing needs, both respect to basic and life skills, and to future employment imperatives. Nonetheless, on-going in-service training need to be re-examined in the context of a global vision taking into account the twin dimensions of skill-building, namely pre- and in-service training. The interdependent functions of each must be clarified in light of the desired overall skill profile of the practicing teacher and of the expectations of the Education Ministry.
Pre-service training should typically fated to provide teachers with the basic skills that will qualify them to enter the teaching profession along with the knowledge of how to update them as and when necessary. Reforms ought to include efforts to find a better balance between the theoretical and the practical by: Organizing alternating in-service training programmes; taking into account different contextual conditions; and designing and integrating pre-service training programmes in a way that reflects their place on a training continuum of staff development.
In-service training, on the other hand, should be tasked with: Completing and/or updating a teacher’s general culture; Reinforcing the skills acquired in pre-service training; Providing information on curriculum modifications and teaching innovations; and Furnishing individualized instruction to teachers with specific needs.
INCOMPETENT TEACHER-EVALUATIONAL METHODS
As stated by the Prime Minister, Rt. Honorable Raila Odinga in his speech during the launching of performance contracts in the civil service,
Performance reports are an essential part of any programme of management by results. The output and efficiency of an administration depend, to a great extent, on the performance of the staff tasked with carrying out the activities that are designed to achieve the institutional objectives. Going well beyond the random inspection that typically results in a sanction of some sort, periodic performance reporting, the sole purpose of which is to increase staff performance, focuses on gaining a better understanding of staff competency, aptitude, and motivation in order to take timely corrective measures to overcome any systemic dysfunctions that come to light in the process.
On the contrary, teacher evaluation is not highly upheld neither by the TSC nor administrators in the various educational institutions. Resultantly, there is lack of unified direction within the sector towards its supposed-to-be objectives.
Additionally, Gitobu, W. & Osero, S. state that ;
the hardworking staff is demotivated as their efforts are rarely recognized and their potentiality is undermined. Moreover, there is reduced degree of accountability and dedication among the staff due to absence of strict assessment relating to their performance.

Staff evaluation counteractive measures to incompetent staff evaluational methods
The educational institutions should carry out thorough accounting and auditing of the teaching staff so as to update their skills inventory. This process involves staff recruitment and retrenchment planning, assessing workforce competencies, developing succession plans and performance appraisals.
The assessment covers all staff, administrative staff should conduct the exercise annually and to prepare a report on the overall picture of the Sector’s human resource performance; various performance measures are used including output, organizational skills, extent of technical competency, research skills and creativity; the introduction of face-to-face meetings with the interested party, at appropriate moments in the evaluation process; breaking down the evaluation process into three inter-related parts, namely:
 pre-evaluation which undertakes to clarify those tasks which can be identified and quantified along with relevant performance measures;
 actual evaluation in which staff performance is assessed with a view to illuminating any shortfall in relation to the objectives followed by a discussion with the staff member concerned; and
 post-evaluation phase in which decisions are taken about any pending personnel matter (e.g. promotion, request for study leave etc.) as well as identifying any corrective measures that may be necessary.
W.B.Castetter,(1996,p23)
To ensure this system is successfully introduced, certain prior conditions must be satisfied: manuals must be prepared in which assigned responsibilities, activities, reporting procedures and related performance measures are made explicit; the development programmes entrusted to each service, together with the performance measures, must be described; and senior support staff trained in management and staff evaluation methods must be in place.
These conditions are far from having been met even in the central administrative services let alone in those at the provincial and district levels and in schools. Yet without them, introducing performance-based management will be still further delayed.
Besides, educational staff assessment is currently undergoing changes in the country especially now that results-based management is being advocated for. Though, debates are still heated in regards to the government’s proposal that its civil servants, as well as teachers, sign performance contracts.

UNPRODUCTIVE TEACHER RELATIONS
The working climate within a school is acknowledged to be closely linked to staff morale, which is why more attention should be paid in regards to participatory decision making, transparent planning, and the training of senior district level staff in modern management methods.
Nonetheless, the teaching staff efficiency has for a long time been hindered by unconducive working environment. Such an environment is basically imposed either by the institution or the government.
Poor institutional relations may be perpetuated by discriminative institutional administrators, retrogressive institutional policies ,inadequate resources or even tribalism as has been in current developments.
Unfavorable government-teacher relations is mostly characterized by absence of commonality of the two parties regarding the policies in the sector. Such policies are mostly related to teaching staff salaries as well as their execution of duties: teacher disciplinary measures; retirement and pentional matters.
Staff relations counteractive measures
There is need for liberalization of institutions from government control. This will enable running of such institutions in an ethical, transparent and accountable manner. Besides, freedom should be granted to such institutions to enable them adopt progressive and constructive concepts.
More to the point, work schedules allow staff to strike a balance between the demands of the workplace and family responsibilities. Compressed work schedules enable employees to put in the required hours but over short duration.
In addition, adopting advanced information and communication technology(ICT) enhances communication amongst the institutional staff as well facilitating education procedures such as researches ; learning process becomes more practical and realistic. As highlighted by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization0,
The Dakar Framework for Action, crafted to address those problems, contains the following main thrusts: establishing good governance; improvement of the status and working conditions of teachers; development of information and communications technologies; and systematic monitoring of the results obtained.
(UNESCO 2007 annual report)
Good governance goes hand-in-glove with: planning and programming which reflect national priorities and needs; new approaches to budgeting by programme and objective with special emphasis placed on the use of performance measures and accountability; devolution and sharing of responsibilities between national, district and local officers within the education sector; greater administrative flexibility with an emphasis placed on user-friendliness. Decentralization is one of the keys to reform to the extent that it promotes grass roots involvement in strategy implementations through greater participation among the various parties in the sector.



CONCLUSION
The place of human resource management (HRM) figures prominently in any civil service administration and nowhere more so than in the education sector. Between the rapid increase in staff and the plethora of new rules and regulations, the complexity of HRM has grown enormously. New approaches and an increase in specialization are inescapable if the task is to be done satisfactorily. These concern arise from the notion that staff are generally interchangeable to a the view that trained individuals represent resources for the solution of sector challenges and must be managed accordingly, To the extent that education ministry officials are compelled to pay more attention to HRM, they need to be better acquainted with policy and reform matters, with the HRM variables that impact on them, and with HRM methodologies.
The improvement of Teachers service efficiency requires a reappraisal of how: management can be improved by recruiting the requisite competencies, regular in-service training, and the reassignment of staff; the appeal of a Teachers service career can be strengthened through better conditions of service, inter-personal relations, and remuneration; a culture of efficiency and high quality work can be introduced and assessed.
The above stated various actions have, in the framework of national programmes, benefited from an on-going technical support provided by UNESCO, the U.N. Agency tasked with the responsibility for coordinating global “Education for All” efforts-as is the mission of the organization.


REFERENCE
Castetter, W.B. (1996). Recruitment, selection, induction, development and appraisal In
W.B.Castetter, The human resource function in educational administration. (6th ed.) (Pp22-47) New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs

Owens, R.G. (1991) Growth-enhancing environments in educational organizations In
R.G. Owen, Organizational behavior in education. (5th ed.) (Pp5-30) New York: A Simon & Schuster Company

Kerr, M.M. & Nelson, C.M. (1989) Strategies for managing behavior problems in the
classroom. (2nd ed.)London: Merrill Publishing Company

Mort, P.R. (1996) Human resource impact in schools In P.R. Mort, Principles of school
administration. (1st ed.) (pp 64-83) New York: Hill Book Company, Inc.

Republic of Kenya, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Administration and
Management. Report of the education administration conference. (21st -25th April, 2006) Part2A, Kenyatta University.

Gitobu, W. & Osero, S. (January-February 2009) HR Management and Development; A new
Approach to Managing People. (pp 7-9)

Douglas, M. & Bukusi, A. (2007) The Issue of educational administration in third world
countries. Dakar, UNESCO Summit. Retrieved April 11, 2009, from
http://www.unesco.doc.2007/summit report/administration/pV4.htm

WRITTEN BY NICKY BITA