Influence Of Effective Implementation Of Life Skills Education On Student Academic Perfomance In Secondary Schools In Koibatek District Baringo County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate and assess the influence of effective implementation of life skills education curriculum on educational performance in a set of select public secondary schools in Koibatek Sub-County, Baringo County. The objectives herein were: to identify the influence of implementation of LSE on academic performance in secondary schools, established from teachers and students the adequacy of LSE resource/materials used in teaching LSE, find out the head teachers‟ outlook pertaining to the implementation of LSE and find out the difficulties that teachers and students encounter in secondary schools in the implementation of LSE and get student/teachers‟ suggestions on how teaching of Life Skills can be improved. The study was guided by Social cognitive theory. The study employed descriptive survey design and used questionnaires as well as interview schedules to collect data. For this study a target population of 74 public secondary schools, 74 principals, 714 teachers and 16616 students was used. The study used stratified random sampling techniques to get the sample size which was 24 public secondary schools, 24 principals, 48 teachers and 288 students. Piloting was done in order to establish both the dependability and validity of the research instruments. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Data were presented by use of simple statistical methods such as frequency and percentages. The data were presented using statistical tables and pie-charts. The findings of this study were aimed at enriching the available data on the research topic and creating awareness among both teachers and students groups on the importance of LSE. Findings of the study revealed that creative thinking in LSE was the major topic taught by the teachers in the secondary schools. Other topics taught include self-esteem, personal relationship, communication, Skills of effective decision making, and Skills of copying up with stress. LSE was not effectively implemented due to barriers such as lack of qualified teachers trained in the field of LSE, lack of cooperation, inadequate materials and resources, poor levels of interest and illiteracy were reported. Books were majorly used as learning materials even though such materials as Magazines, video, Newspapers case studies, role-play, games and storytelling. Majority of schools did not teach life skills since most teachers only emphasized on examinable subjects and had no time for LSE. It is evident from the findings that teaching LSE affects academic performance in almost secondary schools. The study concludes that student and teachers considered the teaching of LSE as an important subject to be taught in secondary schools and order to boost performance in secondary schools based on cooperation, assertion, empathy and self-control, LSE should be effectively implemented to facilitate these important social skill elements. The study recommended that school administration should also provide teaching/learning resources on the subject, teachers should consider LSE as important and examinable as other subjects taught in secondary schools, and the Ministry should also ensure there is monitoring and evaluation of LSE as other disciplines.