Provision Of Efficient Early Childhood Education In Public Primary Schools In Nyamira South Sub-County, Nyamira County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research was to investigate provision of efficient early childhood development education (ECDE) in public primary schools in Nyamira south sub-county, Nyamira County, Kenya. The main problem of this study is that, despite the vital role of early childhood development education in promoting child‟s potential, recent studies have shown that efficient in the provision of early childhood education is low. The challenges leading to this have not been adequately investigated and well understood, hence continue affecting the enrolment and quality negatively in pre-primary schools. The purpose of this, study was therefore to find out provision of efficient early childhood education in Nyamira south sub-county. The objectives of this study were, find out early childhood development education enrollment level of both boys and girls in Nyamira south sub-county, investigate the age brackets of those enrolled in ECDE centres, determine the academic and professional qualifications of teachers employed in ECDE centres and find out the learning resources available for efficiency in the provision of early childhood education in Nyamira south sub-county. The study used a descriptive survey design .A descriptive research attempts to describe the degree to which factors exist and tries to discover the links of relationships which exist between them. The total target population was 293. This consisted 97 headteachers, 194 pre-primary teachers and 2 area education officers. Due to high number of the population random sampling was done in order to arrive at manageable number of respondents given that all the pre-primary public schools in Nyamira south sub county are mixed day. So out of 97 pre-primary schools, 20 were sampled for the study. A great care was taken to ensure that each of the divisions were represented by employing purposive sampling. Out of the 97 headteachers 20 were interviewed and 39 teachers out of 194 were also interviewed. Since there are two divisions in the sub-county the two divisions in the sub-county the two area education officers were also interviewed making the total number of respondents to be 61. The sampled teachers were given questionnaires to fill which the researcher had prepared. The target population consisted of 97 headteachers, 194 teachers and 2 area education officers leading to a total population of 293. The pre-primary schools are all mixed day and therefore random sampling was used to get a sample size of 20 schools. Out of the 97 headteachers 20 were interviewed, 39 teachers out of 194 and the 2 area educational officers each representing a division were also interviewed. The total number of respondents totaled to 61. In data collection interview schedules for area education officers and headteachers were prepared. The teachers were given questionnaires to fill which were prepared in advance. The data collected was analyzed by using percentages and frequency tables. The data was presented in form of tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The major findings were as follows; there were more girls than boys in the researched schools. There were also cases of under-aged and over-aged pupils. There were inadequate, reference books, teaching materials, classrooms, chairs/desks, playing facilities, painting and writing materials. The government and the community should share the burden to ensure more resources are provided and the right aged pupils attend school. In addition the government should employ more teachers to take care of the pupils in schools.