ABSTRACT
School discipline has been an issue of concern to educators, parents, governments and other stakeholders. Studies on school discipline have shown that the forms of indiscipline vary from one level to another and so are the necessary strategies that could be employed to curb indiscipline. Indiscipline among students in Kenya has had detrimental effects on the efforts of educational institutions to achieve their goals. Although indiscipline cases have been reported frequently in Technical Vocational Educational Training Institutions no studies have been done to investigate the strategies used in curbing indiscipline in Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institutions (TVET) in Kenya. This study sought to evaluate the status of discipline and the discipline management strategies used in TVET institutions in Nyeri County, Kenya. The study sought to fulfill the following objectives: evaluate the status of indiscipline; evaluate the roles of the principal, deputy principal, dean of students, students‟ council, head of guidance and counseling department and disciplinary committees in managing discipline in TVET Institutions; evaluate the indiscipline prevention strategies used in managing discipline among students in TVET Institutions; and assess the corrective strategies used in curbing indiscipline among students in TVET Institutions in Nyeri County. The findings of the study shed light on discipline management and provided ways for improving discipline in institutions. The study was guided by the theory of Comprehensive School wide discipline plan. The discipline management strategies were the independent variable while school discipline was the dependent variable. The study employed descriptive survey design. The target population was all the principals, deputy principals, deans of students, members of the disciplinary committee, and students in TVET Institutions in Nyeri County. The study used all inclusive sampling techniques to select 2 principals, 2 deputy principals, 2 deans of students, and random sampling to select 140 lecturers and 346 students as the study sample. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedule and document analysis guide. The face validity of the research instruments was determined through piloting and field work while content validity was determined using expert opinion. The reliability was tested using the Cronbach‟s alpha coefficient at a level 0.7. The questionnaire was found to have a Cronbach‟s Alpha coefficient of 0.78 thus it was used without alteration. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in charts and tables. Qualitative data was analysed thematically as per objectives while quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and results presented in tables and charts. The study established that the discipline status was poor in TVET institutions, administrators played different crucial roles in discipline management. The TVET institutions used both preventive and corrective strategies in dealing with students‟ indiscipline although corrective strategies were more commonly applied. The study recommends review of discipline policy to define roles for all the administrators, enhancement of use of preventive guidance and counseling and role modeling as well as improvement of peer counseling and role modeling by peers.