Influence of Teachers’ Welfare TQM practices on learners’ academic achievement in Integrated Science in junior schools in Bomet County, Kenya

Total Quality Management (TQM) holds significant transformative potential for science education, yet academic achievement in Integrated Science among Junior School learners in Bomet County, Kenya, remains well below national expectations. Baseline data from the 2023 KPSEA showed that 59.92% of learners performed at "Approaching" or "Below Expectations" levels, a declining trend that persisted in subsequent School-Based Assessments where 67.3% of Grade Seven and 62.3% of Grade Eight learners failed to achieve standard mastery. Crucially, the 2025 KJSEA recorded a low county mean score of 31.63% in the "Approaching Expectations" category, reflecting only 30% to 40% mastery of core competencies, directly threatening Kenya Vision 2030’s target of transitioning 60% of learners into Senior School STEM pathways. Grounded in Deming’s TQM Theory and Hattie’s Visible Learning Theory, this study investigated the specific influence of Teacher Welfare (TW) on Integrated Science achievement using a pragmatist philosophy and a mixed-methods concurrent triangulation design. From a target population of 21,653 participants across Bomet County, a quantitative sample of 230 Heads of Institutions (HOIs) was surveyed (α=.89). The qualitative phase involved saturation-based interviews with 5 Sub-County Directors of Education and 23 Grade Nine parents' representatives, alongside 36 classroom observations involving 36 facilitators and 2,756 Grade Nine learners, bringing total completed study participation to 3,050 individuals. Procedural dependability was established through a pilot study in 23 Junior Schools in Kericho County. Quantitative analyses in SPSS at α=.05 revealed that while the combined four-dimension TQM model accounted for 36.9% of performance variance (R2=.369,p<.001), Teacher Welfare independently explained 13.6% of the variance (R2=.136,β=.369,p<.001). Qualitative analysis in NVivo 14 highlighted three critical constraints: overcrowded classrooms exceeding 40 learners, an 86.1% ICT integration deficiency, and severe teacher burnout. Realizing Vision 2030 STEM goals requires prioritizing robust teacher welfare frameworks alongside equitable resourcing.