Teacher Recruitment by County Government and Its Influence on Implementation of Early Childhood Education Curriculum: The Case of Homabay County, Kenya

Abstract

The thrust of this study was to assess the influence of teacher recruitment on the implementation of pre-school curriculum. The study employed explanatory sequential mixed methods design.  From a target population, 236 head teachers, 313 ECDE teachers and 56 County ECDE officers were randomly sampled yielding 588 participants. Data was collected using questionnaire and interview schedules. Quantitative data for the first phase were analyzed with the assistance of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to generate descriptive and inferential statistic Qualitative data during the second phase were analyzed thematically. Mixed results were obtained indicating that head teachers and ECDE teachers held contrary views regarding teacher’s recruitment and deployment. While the head teachers’ results indicated that there was a significant and positive correlation (p=.001, < .05), the ECDE teachers revealed a non-statistically correlation (p=.456,>.05), between the recruitment of teachers and curriculum implementation. The conclusion reached was that there was inadequate teacher recruitment and   the understaffing was negatively influencing curriculum implementation.  It was recommended that national and county government should put in placed a harmonized teacher recruitment policy and employ adequate teachers to effectively implement the curriculum.

Keywords: Recruitment, Head teachers, Pre-school teachers, Curriculum implementation.

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-4-04

Publication date: February 28^th 2022