Teacher Factors Affecting the Implementation of Early Childhood Development Education in Kericho Municipality, Kericho County

Abstract

Childhood education is crucial in the life of a child because it lays the foundation of intellectual and physical development. Concerns have been raised over the state of the ECDE programmes with regard to the negative teacher attitudes towards selection and use of instructional resources due to low remuneration, lack of time and demotivation.  The study adopted the descriptive survey design and was carried out in Kericho Municipality Zone, Kericho County.  The fact that class one pupils cannot read or perform simple arithmetic shows that they did not acquire the skills in ECDE. This aroused concern to the researcher and raised questions that begged for answers. The study findings can benefit the young children to acquire the skills of reading, manipulative, numeric, interpersonal skills and positive attitude towards education. The objective of the study was to assess the influence of teacher preparedness in the use of available instructional materials in the teaching and learning and to explore the attitude of teachers and its influence on the selection and use of instructional in ECDE centres in Kericho County. The study adopted mixed research methods (qualitative and quantitative). Simple random and stratified sampling techniques were used to select respondents who comprised of a target population of 84 head teachers and 180 pre-school teachers to get the sample size of 25 headteachers and 54 pre-school teachers from the selected ECDE centres. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and observation and was analyzed using descriptive statistics, this included frequencies and percentages. Majority of the pre-school teachers 75 (94.9%) agreed that they used available IR in teaching and learning in ECDE centres, however the status of the available materials in the centres were either inadequate, obsolete, dilapidated or unsuitable for use. From the study findings it was concluded that teachers were well prepared to use the available IR though they did not maximize the use of IR in teaching and learning.

Keywords: Instructional resources, teacher preparedness, attitudes