Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Shimelis Sahilu; Ziyn Engdasew; Garkebo Basha; Feyera Dinsa

doi:doi:10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11

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Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Shimelis Sahilu, Ziyn Engdasew, Garkebo Basha, Feyera Dinsa

Published in Education Journal (Volume 11, Issue 2)

Received: 7 February 2022 Accepted: 26 February 2022 Published: 4 March 2022

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Abstract

The aim of school autonomy is to improve the education quality by independence and flexibility in managing existing resources. Regardless of this trend, amazingly little is known about how schools use autonomy in practice, and there were many controversies regarding the relationship between school autonomy and students’ academic achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the magnitude of relationship between the areas of school autonomy and students’ academic achievement in the secondary schools in the study area. The study employed adescriptive-correlational survey research design with a mixed methods approach. A total of 522 respondents (secondary school principals n=20, teachers n=347, and zone and district education office experts n=155) were used as samples. The sample schools were selected by stratified random sampling and the respondents were selected by simple random sampling using RAND or RANDBETWEEN function on Microsoft Excel. Closed-ended questionnaires were employed for gathering quantitative data from the respondents, and concurrently telephone interview and document analysiswere conducted to collect the qualitative data. The Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistical tests were used to measure and describe the significance of the association (or relationship) between the variables or sets of scores. Moreover, t-test was also conducted to test the difference between the teachers and experts. Analysis of the results demonstrated that majority of the respondents perceived school autonomy positively. Moreover, even though the flow of improvement was not constant, it seems that there were few improvements in students’ academic achievement as a result of the practices of school autonomy. The findings also show that there were a number of constraining factors of school autonomy in the study area. The overall conclusion drawn from the results of this study was that: granting autonomy to secondary schools may be the best idea for the better performance of educational systems in the study area along with removing the constraining factors such as lack of training, knowledge, directives/guidelines and school facilities, and financial corruption. Furthermore, similar to many of the developed countries, practice of school autonomy in developing countries was also one of the means to improve students’ academic achievement. Therefore, it can be recommended that the national, regional and district education authorities and researchers have to focus on implementation of the school autonomy along with building the capacity of the school leaders.

Published in	Education Journal (Volume 11, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11
Page(s)	49-62
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Academic Autonomy, Financial Management Autonomy, Personnel Management Autonomy, School Autonomy, Students’ Academic Achievement

References

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Shimelis Sahilu, Ziyn Engdasew, Garkebo Basha, Feyera Dinsa. (2022). Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Education Journal, 11(2), 49-62. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11

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ACS Style

Shimelis Sahilu; Ziyn Engdasew; Garkebo Basha; Feyera Dinsa. Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Educ. J. 2022, 11(2), 49-62. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11

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AMA Style

Shimelis Sahilu, Ziyn Engdasew, Garkebo Basha, Feyera Dinsa. Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Educ J. 2022;11(2):49-62. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11

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@article{10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11,
  author = {Shimelis Sahilu and Ziyn Engdasew and Garkebo Basha and Feyera Dinsa},
  title = {Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia},
  journal = {Education Journal},
  volume = {11},
  number = {2},
  pages = {49-62},
  doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20221102.11},
  abstract = {The aim of school autonomy is to improve the education quality by independence and flexibility in managing existing resources. Regardless of this trend, amazingly little is known about how schools use autonomy in practice, and there were many controversies regarding the relationship between school autonomy and students’ academic achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the magnitude of relationship between the areas of school autonomy and students’ academic achievement in the secondary schools in the study area. The study employed adescriptive-correlational survey research design with a mixed methods approach. A total of 522 respondents (secondary school principals n=20, teachers n=347, and zone and district education office experts n=155) were used as samples. The sample schools were selected by stratified random sampling and the respondents were selected by simple random sampling using RAND or RANDBETWEEN function on Microsoft Excel. Closed-ended questionnaires were employed for gathering quantitative data from the respondents, and concurrently telephone interview and document analysiswere conducted to collect the qualitative data. The Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistical tests were used to measure and describe the significance of the association (or relationship) between the variables or sets of scores. Moreover, t-test was also conducted to test the difference between the teachers and experts. Analysis of the results demonstrated that majority of the respondents perceived school autonomy positively. Moreover, even though the flow of improvement was not constant, it seems that there were few improvements in students’ academic achievement as a result of the practices of school autonomy. The findings also show that there were a number of constraining factors of school autonomy in the study area. The overall conclusion drawn from the results of this study was that: granting autonomy to secondary schools may be the best idea for the better performance of educational systems in the study area along with removing the constraining factors such as lack of training, knowledge, directives/guidelines and school facilities, and financial corruption. Furthermore, similar to many of the developed countries, practice of school autonomy in developing countries was also one of the means to improve students’ academic achievement. Therefore, it can be recommended that the national, regional and district education authorities and researchers have to focus on implementation of the school autonomy along with building the capacity of the school leaders.},
 year = {2022}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia
AU  - Shimelis Sahilu
AU  - Ziyn Engdasew
AU  - Garkebo Basha
AU  - Feyera Dinsa
Y1  - 2022/03/04
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11
T2  - Education Journal
JF  - Education Journal
JO  - Education Journal
SP  - 49
EP  - 62
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2327-2619
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11
AB  - The aim of school autonomy is to improve the education quality by independence and flexibility in managing existing resources. Regardless of this trend, amazingly little is known about how schools use autonomy in practice, and there were many controversies regarding the relationship between school autonomy and students’ academic achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the magnitude of relationship between the areas of school autonomy and students’ academic achievement in the secondary schools in the study area. The study employed adescriptive-correlational survey research design with a mixed methods approach. A total of 522 respondents (secondary school principals n=20, teachers n=347, and zone and district education office experts n=155) were used as samples. The sample schools were selected by stratified random sampling and the respondents were selected by simple random sampling using RAND or RANDBETWEEN function on Microsoft Excel. Closed-ended questionnaires were employed for gathering quantitative data from the respondents, and concurrently telephone interview and document analysiswere conducted to collect the qualitative data. The Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistical tests were used to measure and describe the significance of the association (or relationship) between the variables or sets of scores. Moreover, t-test was also conducted to test the difference between the teachers and experts. Analysis of the results demonstrated that majority of the respondents perceived school autonomy positively. Moreover, even though the flow of improvement was not constant, it seems that there were few improvements in students’ academic achievement as a result of the practices of school autonomy. The findings also show that there were a number of constraining factors of school autonomy in the study area. The overall conclusion drawn from the results of this study was that: granting autonomy to secondary schools may be the best idea for the better performance of educational systems in the study area along with removing the constraining factors such as lack of training, knowledge, directives/guidelines and school facilities, and financial corruption. Furthermore, similar to many of the developed countries, practice of school autonomy in developing countries was also one of the means to improve students’ academic achievement. Therefore, it can be recommended that the national, regional and district education authorities and researchers have to focus on implementation of the school autonomy along with building the capacity of the school leaders.
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Shimelis Sahilu

Department of Educational Planning and Management, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
Ziyn Engdasew

Department of Educational Planning and Management, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
Garkebo Basha

Department of Educational Planning and Management, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
Feyera Dinsa

Department of Educational Planning and Management, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

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Shimelis Sahilu, Ziyn Engdasew, Garkebo Basha, Feyera Dinsa. (2022). Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Education Journal, 11(2), 49-62. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11

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ACS Style

Shimelis Sahilu; Ziyn Engdasew; Garkebo Basha; Feyera Dinsa. Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Educ. J. 2022, 11(2), 49-62. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11

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AMA Style

Shimelis Sahilu, Ziyn Engdasew, Garkebo Basha, Feyera Dinsa. Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Educ J. 2022;11(2):49-62. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11,
  author = {Shimelis Sahilu and Ziyn Engdasew and Garkebo Basha and Feyera Dinsa},
  title = {Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia},
  journal = {Education Journal},
  volume = {11},
  number = {2},
  pages = {49-62},
  doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20221102.11},
  abstract = {The aim of school autonomy is to improve the education quality by independence and flexibility in managing existing resources. Regardless of this trend, amazingly little is known about how schools use autonomy in practice, and there were many controversies regarding the relationship between school autonomy and students’ academic achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the magnitude of relationship between the areas of school autonomy and students’ academic achievement in the secondary schools in the study area. The study employed adescriptive-correlational survey research design with a mixed methods approach. A total of 522 respondents (secondary school principals n=20, teachers n=347, and zone and district education office experts n=155) were used as samples. The sample schools were selected by stratified random sampling and the respondents were selected by simple random sampling using RAND or RANDBETWEEN function on Microsoft Excel. Closed-ended questionnaires were employed for gathering quantitative data from the respondents, and concurrently telephone interview and document analysiswere conducted to collect the qualitative data. The Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistical tests were used to measure and describe the significance of the association (or relationship) between the variables or sets of scores. Moreover, t-test was also conducted to test the difference between the teachers and experts. Analysis of the results demonstrated that majority of the respondents perceived school autonomy positively. Moreover, even though the flow of improvement was not constant, it seems that there were few improvements in students’ academic achievement as a result of the practices of school autonomy. The findings also show that there were a number of constraining factors of school autonomy in the study area. The overall conclusion drawn from the results of this study was that: granting autonomy to secondary schools may be the best idea for the better performance of educational systems in the study area along with removing the constraining factors such as lack of training, knowledge, directives/guidelines and school facilities, and financial corruption. Furthermore, similar to many of the developed countries, practice of school autonomy in developing countries was also one of the means to improve students’ academic achievement. Therefore, it can be recommended that the national, regional and district education authorities and researchers have to focus on implementation of the school autonomy along with building the capacity of the school leaders.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Relationship Between School Autonomy and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia
AU  - Shimelis Sahilu
AU  - Ziyn Engdasew
AU  - Garkebo Basha
AU  - Feyera Dinsa
Y1  - 2022/03/04
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11
T2  - Education Journal
JF  - Education Journal
JO  - Education Journal
SP  - 49
EP  - 62
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2327-2619
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20221102.11
AB  - The aim of school autonomy is to improve the education quality by independence and flexibility in managing existing resources. Regardless of this trend, amazingly little is known about how schools use autonomy in practice, and there were many controversies regarding the relationship between school autonomy and students’ academic achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the magnitude of relationship between the areas of school autonomy and students’ academic achievement in the secondary schools in the study area. The study employed adescriptive-correlational survey research design with a mixed methods approach. A total of 522 respondents (secondary school principals n=20, teachers n=347, and zone and district education office experts n=155) were used as samples. The sample schools were selected by stratified random sampling and the respondents were selected by simple random sampling using RAND or RANDBETWEEN function on Microsoft Excel. Closed-ended questionnaires were employed for gathering quantitative data from the respondents, and concurrently telephone interview and document analysiswere conducted to collect the qualitative data. The Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistical tests were used to measure and describe the significance of the association (or relationship) between the variables or sets of scores. Moreover, t-test was also conducted to test the difference between the teachers and experts. Analysis of the results demonstrated that majority of the respondents perceived school autonomy positively. Moreover, even though the flow of improvement was not constant, it seems that there were few improvements in students’ academic achievement as a result of the practices of school autonomy. The findings also show that there were a number of constraining factors of school autonomy in the study area. The overall conclusion drawn from the results of this study was that: granting autonomy to secondary schools may be the best idea for the better performance of educational systems in the study area along with removing the constraining factors such as lack of training, knowledge, directives/guidelines and school facilities, and financial corruption. Furthermore, similar to many of the developed countries, practice of school autonomy in developing countries was also one of the means to improve students’ academic achievement. Therefore, it can be recommended that the national, regional and district education authorities and researchers have to focus on implementation of the school autonomy along with building the capacity of the school leaders.
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
ER  -

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