1. Introduction

Self-regulated learning is a process that assists students in managing their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions in order to successfully navigate their learning experiences (Zimmerman, 2006). It is clearly important to develop self-understanding and healthy self-esteem. But one of the most important skills that we develop in childhood is the ability to control aspects of the self. Without this ability we would have great difficulty accomplishing anything, regardless of how good we might feel about ourselves. According to Cook, (2014), Self-regulation is the ability to monitor and control our own behavior, emotions, or thoughts, altering them in accordance with the demands of the situation which includes the abilities to inhibit first responses, to resist interference from irrelevant stimulation, and to persist on relevant tasks even when we do not enjoy them. Aspects of self-regulation correlate with various positive outcomes for children and adolescents including better academic performance, problem-solving skills, and reading comprehension; more satisfying interactions with peers; higher levels of intrinsic motivation, self-worth, perceived competence, self-efficacy, moral cognition, and moral conduct; fewer behavior problems; and lower levels of psychopathology (Zimmerman, 2006).

In America, Pintrich and Elisabeth (2007) study revealed that, depending on the outcome measure, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and test anxiety emerged as the best predictors of performance. Intrinsic value did not have a direct influence on performance but was strongly related to self-regulation and cognitive strategy use, regardless of prior achievement level.

Furthermore, Apondi; (2012) in Siaya District, Kenya showed that lack of parental guidance affected the orphans in schools implying that orphan hood was an issue that required special attention in schools as Orphans were affected by a number of issues including high dropout rate, absenteeism, malnutrition, low self-esteem and lack of confidence which were directly linked to academic achievement of these children. The study also found out that there were inadequate children's homes with inadequate facilities to take care of the needs of the orphans.

According to TAC Report, (2011), there were 56 homesteads, with 74 total orphans and 92 partial, making a total of 166 orphans in the tiny lakeshore village and according to the National Population Policy for Sustainable Development, Bondo District Strategic Plan, 2005-2010, orphan hood associated with HIV/AIDS deaths is on the increase, and the prevalence rate is at 95% and rising, the study shows 1/3 of the current population will have perished in 5yrs and diminished in 10yrs, leaving women and child headed families. Most of the children orphaned by AIDS have been taken in by extended family members. However, the large number of orphaned and vulnerable children is overwhelming this traditional copying mechanism. Elderly female caretakers or children themselves are heading many of these households and with no income, they lack resources needed to support these additional children and provide essential food, clothing and school fees. Conversely, for the children to cope and/or ensure the survival of their younger siblings, most orphans are being forced to find some sources of income. The result from this reports show that children are involved in extracurricular activities at younger age and this can influence their cognitive development as well as consuming their schooling time and therefore influencing their academic achievement.

The Social cognitive theory was relevant in the present study in that orphans are generally affected especially when they lose their loved parents and therefore they need to be motivated in order to carry on with life and more so education. Orphan hood is a state in life that when not taken care of properly then the orphaned child can begin portraying antisocial behaviors that may have a negative impact on their lives. Moreover, just as Bandura (1977; 1986) stated that motivation in classroom is very key to performance likewise these children need to be motivated in order to perform. Denlinger (2012) reported that, self-perception of having good time-management skills proved to have a direct correlation to performance levels. Hamzah, Lucky and Joarder (2014) indicated that there is a significant and positive relationship between time management and students’ academic performance. Sevil and Necati (2011) indicated a significant and positive relation between time planning and time consumers and the academic achievement of the students; there was a low and positive relation between time consumers and academic achievement; there was a meaningful and moderate relation between time management and academic achievement.

Similarly, Kelly (2004) results support the positive correlation between judicious time management, academic performance, and GPA. Brint and Cantwell (2006), there was no direct correlation found, in this particular study, between engaging in campus life activities and increased educational benefits. Junco and Cotton (2011), found that these technologies have been an interruption because students spend much time using them while doing schoolwork, thereby fractioning their concentration and limiting absorption of new material. Ugwulashi (2011) from Nigeria emphasized that proper time management facilitates qualitative teaching and learning in accomplishing educational goals and objectives. Fakude, (2012) indicated that most participants were affected by external factors as compared to their internal locus of control. Swart, Lomberd and Jager (2010) indicated no statistically significant relationship between time management skills and the academic achievement of African engineering students. Chandi, Ndiritu, Kidombo, Mbwesa and Keiyoro (2013) indicated a strong relationship between time management and academic. The present study investigated the relationship between time management and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students in Bondo Sub-county of Kenya.

It is expected that performance of orphans and non orphans to be at par. Due to this expectation, there are commitments in education sector to improve performance of all students in secondary schools including free secondary education in Kenya. However, there are disparities to the extent that despite Kenya Government’s commitment to enhance child education in Kenya, orphans participation rate at secondary school level is still notably low. Although each child has the right to education according to Children’s Act of 2001, orphaned children in Bondo Sub County schools perform relatively poorly as indicated in the performance trend. From the trends of the performance of the orphaned children in Siaya County, the above results indicate that they perform much lower than the other students who have both parents. Narrowing down to Bondo Sub County, out of 501 orphaned children who sat for KCSE exams in 2013, only 17% managed to score C+ and above as compared to those students staying with their parents where 34% of them managed to score C+ and above. This performance is a drop compared to 2012 KCSE exams where 19.7% of the orphaned students managed to score C+ and above. However, this decreasing trend in performance among orphans is worrying and requires special attention. This poor performance is attributable to the fact that orphans are at risk of losing their learning time especially when involved in child labor activities, furthermore, lack of parental guidance affects the orphans in schools implying that orphan hood is an issue that requires special attention in schools. The present study investigated the relationship between time management and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students of Kenya.

2. Research Methodology

The study used ex-post-facto research design. It is also commonly used when facts have already occurred (Kerlinger and Rint 1986). Ex-post-facto research design is used in this study because, the children were already orphaned, existing examination results were used, and the fact that the effects and causes of differences between the two groups of children (orphans and non orphans) had already occurred. The sample constituted 300 orphaned secondary school children and 7 head teachers chosen through saturated and simple random sampling respectively. This study picked seven schools at random from which the 7 head teachers were used as respondents as recommended by Jwan (2010). The questionnaire adopted the Likert scale method whereby respondents had to respond to every statement using a structured format: Always, Sometimes, Rarely and Never. In order to pre-test the questionnaire on the length, content, question wording, and language, seven respondents (5% of the total sample) equivalent to 15 orphans from one public secondary school with similar characteristics with the target population which the study proposes to focus on were interviewed. Expert advice was sought from the supervisors and other lecturers in the Department of Psychology and Educational foundation, who examined the items of the instruments and gave professional advice that, found a basis for the modification and improvement of the questionnaires. The reliability of the instruments was estimated after the pilot study using the Cronbach’s reliability coefficient, indicate a Cronbach’s Alpha (0.891). A correlation was determined between time management and academic achievement. Hypotheses were tested at the 5% level of significance (p=0.05). For example, when the p-value obtained was less than 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected but when the p-value obtained was greater than 0.05 then the null hypothesis was accepted.

3. Findings & Discussion

The study established the relationship between time management and academic achievement among orphaned secondary school children in Bondo Sub-county. To address this research objective, two questionnaires were carefully developed; the first one was to measure the level of time management and the second questionnaire was investigating the elements of self-regulation factors among the orphaned secondary school children. In addressing the third objective of the study, the null hypothesis “There is no statistically significant relationship between time management and academic achievement among orphaned secondary school children in Bondo Sub-county” was tested. To do this a correlation analysis was conducted. The set scores on the time management were used as the independent variable while scores from self-regulation factors was used as the explanatory variable (dependant variable).

On the level of time management among the orphaned secondary school children, the researcher designed a questionnaire to collect views of the respondents on the same. The items in the questionnaire were related to facts/perceptions which were linked to actions influenced by time management that were deemed to have bearing on self-regulation factors among the orphaned secondary school children. The students’ respondents were presented with statements that had time management connotations and were Likert-scaled. The respondents were to choose from 4-point score; Always (A), Sometimes (S), Rarely (R) and Never (N). The respondents were asked to score on each statement based on their perception on the statement in regard to time management. The researcher computed percentage frequencies of the responses from the students and was tabulated as shown in Table 1 while the results of the correlation are presented in table 2.

From the findings in the table 1, 41.6% of the students always do things in order of priority while 39.2% of the students sometimes do things in order of priority. However, 10.8% rarely do things in order of priority but 8.4% of the students never do things in order of priority. In addition, 46.2% of the students always accomplish what needs to be done during the day while 38.1% of the students sometimes accomplish what needs to be done during the day. Unfortunately, 2.1% of the students never accomplish what needs to be done during the day while 13.6% of the students rarely accomplish what needs to be done during the day. Moreover, the findings are in agreement to the words echoed by Ugwulashi (2011) who emphasized that students always do things in order of priority.

Table 1. Percentage responses on items of time management

The results showed that 22.3% and 27.6% always and sometimes respectively force themselves to make time for planning while 18.9% and 31.1% of the students rarely and never force themselves to make time for planning respectively. Moreover, 42% of the students always spend enough time planning while 29.4% of the students only spend enough time planning sometimes. On the contrary, 19.2% rarely spend enough time planning while 9.4% has never spent enough time planning. 38.5% of the students prepare a daily or weekly "to do" list always while 24.8% of the students sometimes prepare a daily or weekly "to do" list. Sorry to say that 18.5% of the students never prepare a daily or weekly "to do" list while 18.2% of the students rarely prepare a daily or weekly "to do" list. Denlinger (2012) who emphasized that majority of the students do not plan well for the academic studies. The findings are in agreement to the sentiments echoed by Sevil and Necati (2011) who found out that student behavior in the category of time planning was at the highest level and behavior in the category of time consumers was at the lowest level and that the success of the students was above average. There was a significant and positive relation between time planning and time consumers and the academic achievement of the students; there was a low and positive relation between time consumers and academic achievement; there was a meaningful and moderate relation between time management and academic achievement.

In addition, the results showed that 44% of the students always prioritize their list in order of importance, not urgency while 26.6% of the students sometimes prioritize their list in order of importance, not urgency. However, 18.2% and 11.2% of the students rarely and never respectively prioritize their list in order of importance, not urgency. On the other hand, 43% of the students always able to meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute while 35.3% of the students sometimes able to meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute. However, 14% of the students rarely able to meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute while 7.7% never meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute. This implies that 21.7% of the students are not able to meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute. The findings are in agreement to the words echoed by Swart, Lomberd and Jager (2010) who found out that poor academic success by African engineering students is currently experienced in many higher educational institutions, contributing to lower financial subsidies by local governments.

From the study, it was also established that 47.9% of the students always avoid spending too much time on trivial matters while 28.3% of the students only sometimes avoid spending too much time on trivial matters. Unfortunately, 10.1% of the students never avoid spending too much time on trivial matters while 13.6% of the students even rarely avoid spending too much time on trivial matters. It was worth to note that majority of the students (always; 73.8%, sometimes; 18.9%) spend enough time on academic matters while 4.2% rarely spend enough time on academic matters. Sadly to note that 3.1% of the students never spend enough time on academic matters. The results are in agreement to the findings by Denlinger (2012) who emphasized that to improve academic performance among college students, self-attitudes and participation in activities that keep schedules busy will help enforce the principle influence; time management practices. The findings are also in agreement to the findings by Fakude, (2012) who indicated that most participants were affected by external factors as compared to their internal locus of control. Some of the factors that were found to be negatively related to academic achievement are: time management, financial difficulties, enrolment, political affiliation, and unavailability of lecturers to students. However, help-seeking has been shown to have positive impact on students’ performance.

As a method of relaxing, only 29% of the students plan time to relax and be with friends in their weekly schedule whereas 34.6% of the students sometimes plan time to relax and be with friends in their weekly schedule. This provides room for social interaction which in one way or the other benefit the students. On the other hand, 24.1% of the students rarely plan time to relax and be with friends in their weekly schedule and the worse is 12.2% of the students who never plan time to relax and be with friends in their weekly schedule. Moreover, 44.8% of the students always have a weekly schedule on which they record fixed commitments such as classes and work hours while 24.1% sometimes. On the contrary, 15.7% and 15.4% rarely and never respectively have a weekly schedule on which they record fixed commitments such as classes and work hours. The results are consistent to the findings by Brint and Cantwell (2006) who found that physical exercise and participating in volunteer work have a strong influence on academic awareness. There was no direct correlation found, in this particular study, between engaging in campus life activities and increased educational benefits. The biggest obstacle to positive academic performance, however, was found to be holding an off-campus job. Those students who spent significant time working for pay suffered with lower GPAs. Apparently some activities are better suited to strong academic performance than others.

The results showed that 55.6% of the students always try to do the most important tasks during their most energetic periods of the day while 26.2% only does it sometimes. However, 13.6% of the students rarely try to do the most important tasks during their most energetic periods of the day and they were supported by 4.5% of their counterparts who never try to do the most important tasks during their most energetic periods of the day. It was also realized that more than half (51.4%) of the students always make constructive use of their commuting time as compared to 28.7% of the students who only sometimes make constructive use of their commuting time. Unfortunately, 15% and 4.9% of the students rarely and never respectively make constructive use of their commuting time. These findings are in agreement to the sentiments echoed by Denlinger (2012) who established students that perceive themselves as having good time management skills were the students who were more involved and had a high desire to achieve, resulting in a higher level of performance. Similarly, Kelly (2004) found that efficient use of time is directly associated with increased academic performance and achievement. Moreover, the findings are in agreement to the words echoed by Ugwulashi (2011) who emphasized that proper time management facilitates qualitative teaching and learning in accomplishing educational goals and objectives. It started with an overview of time, definition of time and time management, application of time management in school administration, scheduling of activities and time tabling process.

On the statement of ‘I periodically re-assess my activities in relation to my goals’, 62.6% always does it while 20.6% of the students does it sometimes. However, 12.6% of the students rarely periodically re-assess their activities in relation to their goals. This was consistent to 4.2% of the students who has never periodically re-assess their activities in relation to their goals. The result has also found out that 47.6% of the students have discontinued any wasteful or unprofitable activities or routines while 18.5% of the students have sometimes discontinued any wasteful or unprofitable activities or routines. On contrary, 15% held the opinion of rarely having discontinued any wasteful or unprofitable activities or routines. Their counterparts were in the same agreement where 18.9% of the students also decline that never have they discontinued any wasteful or unprofitable activities or routines. The results are similar to the findings by Brint and Cantwell (2006) who found that extra study time increases students’ academic performance, but their research addressed other potentially beneficial ways of spending free time.

It was important to note that most of the students (always; 61.5%, sometimes; 21.7) have their actions determined primarily by themselves, not by circumstances or by other people's priorities. However, 10.8% of the students rarely their actions are not determined primarily by themselves, but by circumstances or by other people's priorities. In addition, 5.9% of the students, their actions are never determined primarily by themselves, but by circumstances or by other people's priorities. The findings concurs to the findings by Muola (2010) whose words indicated that circumstances or other people's priorities including parental encouragement do not influenced actions made by the students. Moreover, 90.9% of the students have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish during the coming semester while 6.3% and 2.8% of the students rarely and even never respectively have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish during the coming semester. Finally, the results showed that more than half (51%) of the students are always satisfied with the way they use their time while 30.4% of the students stated sometimes on the fact that they are satisfied with the way they use their time. Unfortunately, 14.0% of the students have never been satisfied with the way they use their time while 4.5% of the students rarely satisfied with the way they use their time. The findings are consistent to other studies by Denlinger (2012) who affirms that the self-perception of having good time-management skills proved to have a direct correlation to performance levels.

In general, the findings are supported by other studies like those of Denlinger (2012) whose results proved that being involved in extracurricular activities or demanding majors and having a high desire to succeed are the main predictors in successful time management skills. Furthermore, Denlinger (2012) revealed that the self-perception of having good time-management skills proved to have a direct correlation to performance levels. Students that perceive themselves as having good time management skills were the students who were more involved and had a high desire to achieve, resulting in a higher level of performance. To improve academic performance among college students, self-attitudes and participation in activities that keep schedules busy will help enforce the principle influence; time management practices.

To address the objective of the study, the null hypothesis “There is no statistically significant relationship between time management and academic achievement among orphaned secondary school children in Bondo Sub-county.” was tested. To do this a correlation analysis was conducted. The set scores on the time management skills were used as the independent variable while scores from academic performance of orphaned children was used as the explanatory variable (dependant variable). The results of the correlation are presented in table 2.

Table 2. Correlations

The Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient (r = .906) computed indicated that there was high positive correlation between time management and academic achievement among orphaned secondary school children in Bondo Sub-county. The analysis revealed highly significant (p < 0.05) positive relationship between time management and academic achievement, with high levels of time management associated with the fact that most of the students do things in order of priority and aspire to accomplish what needs to be done during the day. Some always get assignments done on time as well as using their time effectively. Majority of the students prioritize their list in order of importance, not urgency and able to meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute. Furthermore, most students keep up-to-date on their reading and homework assignments and prevent interruptions from distracting them from high priority tasks while spending enough time on academic matters. Majority of the students have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish during the coming semester hence satisfied with the way they use my time (SSPS output is shown in Table 2). Hence it is acceptable to conclude that there were significant positive association between time management and academic achievement. The findings are in agreement to the words echoed by Kelly (2004) whose results support the positive correlation between judicious time management, academic performance, and GPA. They also deemed the social desirability scale insignificant related to time use or the GPA, while elevated TUES scores were directly tied to higher GPAs and overall academic achievement.

In addition, the findings further agreed to Hamzah, Lucky and Joarder (2014) whose findings of the study indicated that there is a significant and positive relationship between time management and students’ academic performance. In the light of the findings, they discussed the importance of time management in order to improve students’ academic performance. Similarly, the findings concurs to Chandi, Ndiritu, Kidombo, Mbwesa and Keiyoro (2013) whose analysis indicated a strong relationship between time management and academic. Furthermore, Swart, Lomberd and Jager (2010) where the results of the study were applied to various tests, which indicated no statistically significant relationship between time management skills and the academic achievement of African engineering students. This was in contrast to the results by Swart, Lomberd and Jager (2010) where the results of the study were applied to various tests, which indicated no statistically significant relationship between time management skills and the academic achievement of African engineering students.

This refers to students’ effectively and independently prioritizes and plans their time to achieve long- and short-term goals and outcomes. Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising deliberate control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. It involves priority setting on various activities from the most important to the least important in achieving the desired academic goals in a learning set up. One of the head teachers said that, I have noticed that one of the challenges with orphans is that they do not prioritize whatever they do and due to this they are always late presenting their take away assignments (Head Teacher 3). Therefore, because of this, another head teacher said that, I am certain that few of the orphans accomplish their tasks at the right time (Head Teacher 1). The implications is that orphans do not do things according to the priority which makes them get time bad when it comes to the submission of homework assignments. Moreover, the findings are in contrast to the words echoed by Ugwulashi (2011) who emphasized that students always do things in order of priority.

Furthermore, this is supported by one of the head teachers who said that, most of the orphans do not finish up their assignments on time (Head Teacher 2). Moreover, another head teacher was consistent to other colleagues and stated that, I have realized that orphans do not know how to plan their time effectively and in fact most of them do not even have time tables for revision (Head Teacher 5), head teacher 4 even emphasized that some orphans are even forced to plan for their time. Findings are similar to Denlinger (2012) who emphasized that majority of the students do not plan well for the academic studies. The findings are in agreement to the sentiments echoed by Sevil and Necati (2011) who found out that student behavior in the category of time planning was at the highest level and behavior in the category of time consumers was at the lowest level and that the success of the students was above average. There was a significant and positive relation between time planning and time consumers and the academic achievement of the students; there was a low and positive relation between time consumers and academic achievement; there was a meaningful and moderate relation between time management and academic achievement.

Unfortunately, most students including orphans like procrastination to the extent that some of the subjects are poorly performed (Head Teacher 7). In addition, it is sad to know that orphans and other students do not have proper guidelines especially in their studies (Head Teacher 6). Some students especially orphans just study for the sake of studying and therefore do not take their education seriously to the extent that some subjects are even missing in their personal revision time tables and this affects their performance (Head Teacher 3). This means orphans do not have even properly designed timetables that guides their revision hence portrays low performance in schools. The findings are similar to the words echoed by Suleiman (2010) who revealed the factors such as parents’ education level, parents’ financial burden, the family size, conditions at home, parents’ attitude towards education, school infrastructure, availability of teaching requirements, curriculum implementation, time management, student’s discipline, student’s entry mark, teacher’s teaching experience and level of education among others have significant impact in academic performance of a child.

One of the head teachers confirmed that, orphans have the tendency of rushing in the 11^th hour during their studies since they do not utilize their free time to revise in advance (Head Teacher 7). This implies that no orphan students does his or her assignment and hand it over in time. This may also be caused by poor planning among the students’ orphans. Another head teacher affirms that some orphans do not keep their notes updated (Head Teacher 4). It was also noted that orphans are easily disrupted from their plans and hence change their priorities (Head Teacher 2). One of the head teachers said that, I do not know why orphans like wasting time in matters of no importance (Head Teacher 6). In fact few students spend enough time with their books (Head Teacher 1). This implies that majority of the orphans are not friends to their books and instead waste time doing other things such as watching social media games which end up wasting their time to the extent that they perform poorly in their academics. Similarly, findings concurs to the words by Kimani, Kara and Njagi (2013) who found that always keep up-to-date on their reading and homework assignments, teachers’ age, gender, professional qualifications and teaching experience were not significantly related to academic achievement. Teachers’ job group had significant and positive relationship with students’ academic achievement in secondary schools. Moreover, the results are in agreement to the findings by Denlinger (2012) who emphasized that to improve academic performance among college students, self-attitudes and participation in activities that keep schedules busy will help enforce the principle influence; time management practices. The findings are also in agreement to the findings by Fakude, (2012) who indicated that most participants were affected by external factors as compared to their internal locus of control. Some of the factors that were found to be negatively related to academic achievement are: time management, financial difficulties, enrolment, political affiliation, and unavailability of lecturers to students. However, help-seeking has been shown to have positive impact on students’ performance.

One of the head teachers noted that some students are anti social especially orphans due to loneliness yet even in their loneliness still waste a lot of time that they would have utilized in for their academic purposes (Head Teacher 5). This probably makes the orphans feels like they are isolated from their colleagues. During the interview, it was also noted that some orphans commute from home away from schools and this makes them use their time badly (Head Teacher 6). Sadly to note that, some students including orphans do not have goals to achieve in life and this make them not able to plan well for whatever they want to achieve in life (Head Teacher 2). Another head teacher said that, with the digital world, some orphans waste a lot of time in social media and this has interrupted their studies (Head Teacher 6). The findings are in agreement to the words echoed by Swart, Lomberd and Jager (2010) who found out that poor academic success by African engineering students is currently experienced in many higher educational institutions, contributing to lower financial subsidies by local governments. One of the contributing factors to this low academic success may be the poor time management skills of these students. In addition, the findings are in agreement to the results by Junco and Cotton (2011), who emphasized that the increasing availability of social media, such as Facebook and text messaging, more students have engaged in multitasking as a way to manage their lives. By analyzing the results of a web survey they had conducted, Junco and Cotton found that these technologies have been an interruption because students spend much time using them while doing schoolwork, thereby fractioning their concentration and limiting absorption of new material. This has led to a decrease in students’ academic performance and overall GPA. Students might attempt to dispute these findings, however, claiming they spend quite a few hours each week studying, while grossly under-reporting the amount of this study time being spent in social networking pursuits.

4. Conclusions

In conclusion, some of the students always do things in order of priority. In addition, some of the students always accomplish what needs to be done during the day while others sometimes accomplish what needs to be done during the day. Furthermore, more than half of the students always keep up-to-date on their reading and homework assignments while others sometimes keep up-to-date on their reading and homework assignments. Counselors should review and redesign effective intervention policies aimed at enabling schools to provide expected parenting roles and responsibilities that can mold the orphaned children into self-reliant citizens and as a result improving their academic performance. This is because the secondary school orphans feel lonely after their parents’ death.