Availability and Use of Instructional Materials and Facilities towards Enhancing Students’ Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools: A Case of Rift Valley Province, Kenya

Abstract

Performance in economics has been relatively unsatisfactory despite the national efforts made in developing a syllabus that is appropriate to the needs of Kenyans. Since the inception of the 8-4-4 system of education, there has been a persistent decline in enrolment of economics students and the subject has been characterized by poor performance in the national examinations. This annual decline in enrolment implies that the subject is likely to be phased out in the secondary school curriculum. The Ministry of Education inspectorate unit has echoed this fear. The authoritative reports reviewed showed that the students' performance over the years has not been satisfactory. This observation compelled the author to carry out this study on the availability and use of  instructional resources for the teaching and learning of economics to enhance academic performance. Simple purposive sampling method was used to select twenty-four schools teaching economics in the fourth form. Questionnaires for district inspectors of secondary school, teachers and students of economics were used to collect the required data. The collected data was tabulated and analyzed using the Excel software program. The study established that Schools equipped with adequate and relevant learning resources are likely to have students performing well in examinations. In this case,  National schools perform better than Provincial and District schools because they are well equipped with text-books. The study also established that other resources like periodicals and audio-visuals such as television, radio and computers were under-utilized. It is expected that teachers of economics will benefit from the findings, of this study, in their selection of  instructional resources to use  hence improve the performance of the subject in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations which are administered by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC). Furthermore, the findings will form a basis of needs analysis for the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) which manages the production and  provision of instructional materials for schools.  KNEC too will benefit especially in organizing examination materials and conducting the KCSE. The study recommends that the government and the school administration should make an effort to provide physical facilities and teaching resources to Provincial and District schools.

Keywords: Instructional materials, Facilities, Economics subject, Enhancing performance, Students’ performance