Attitudes of Pupils and Teachers Towards Life Skills Education in Public Primary Schools in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya (Published)
In the year 2009, the government of Kenya introduced Life Skills Education to help the students in coping with the challenges and demands for everyday life. It is important to understand how performed since then. As such, the study was conducted to find out the preparedness of public primary schools in the implementation of Life Skills Education (LSE) curriculum in Eldoret Municipality. Based on the study, this paper examines the attitudes of pupils and teachers towards Life Skills Education in public primary schools in Eldoret Municipality. The study was based on the 1997 Functionalist theory by Kinsley Davis. The study employed a survey design. Out of the total 42 public primary schools in Eldoret Municipality 13 of them were selected through simple random sampling. A sample size of 13 head teachers was purposively selected, from the 13 schools; 39 teachers, 3 from each school, were purposively selected. These comprised teachers of LSE. Stratified sampling was used to select one teacher from lower primary, mid-upper and upper primary. Pupils in Classes Six and Seven were purposively selected. The study, therefore, sampled was 299 respondents comprising of teachers and pupils. The data collection instruments used were: questionnaires and interview schedules for head teachers. Descriptive methods were employed in data analysis and data were presented in the form of frequency distribution tables, graphs and pie charts. Data from the interview schedules was analysed qualitatively. The study findings revealed that majority (69.1%) of the students in public primary schools in Eldoret Municipality enjoyed learning Life Skills Education. This shows that students had a positive attitude towards learning of life skills education. In addition, it emerged that majority of the teachers believed that Life Skill Education was necessary for primary school children. It was therefore recommended that there is need to make its teaching and learning compulsory to all students as it contributes to personal and social development of a child at an early stage. Similarly, for teachers to develop an interest in teaching of LSE, there is need for them to be trained on LSE.
Keywords: Attitudes, Eldoret Kenya, Life Skills Education, Public Primary Schools, Pupils., Teachers
THE ROLE OF TEACHERS’ TRAINING IN EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF LIFE SKILLS CURRICULUM IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ELDORET EAST DISTRICT, KENYA (Published)
The teacher is the most important ingredient in the effective teaching and learning and more so the life skills. It is therefore important that teachers are very well prepared to meet this new challenge of teaching life skills. The success of a teacher largely depends on his/her personal context, personal efforts and his/her general personality. These characteristics can be greatly enhanced if a teacher receives specialized training in methods of teaching life skills education programme. This prompted the author to carry out a study in life skills teaching in secondary schools in Eldoret East District in Kenya. This paper discusses the findings on how the training of teachers influences life skills education in the study area. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The techniques used to select the research sample were stratified, purposive and simple random sampling. Two hundred and forty (240) students, 45 teachers and 15 heads of humanities department were selected to participate in the study. To collect data, questionnaire and interview schedule were used. Data collected were coded in Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSSv 13.5) and analysed by non parametric Chi-square (χ2) test, descriptive statistics and frequency distribution. The findings were presented in form of tables, charts and graphs. The study revealed that teachers were not fully prepared to teach life skills and were in dire need of in-service courses for effective teaching. It was therefore recommended the Ministry of Education through KIE should facilitate in-service training of LSE teachers at least once per year and provide clear guidelines on how to teach the contents of LSE. Investigation into teachers’ classroom competence has yielded findings, which can be used for the betterment of teaching and learning of life skills in Kenyan secondary schools. Curriculum developers would find the research findings useful as they reflect on the extent in which the objectives set for the course are being achieved
Keywords: Eldoret East District, Kenya, Life Skills Education, Role, Secondary Schools, Teacher Training