Factors influencing the implemention of Early childhood development community support grant project in central Kakamega District, Kenya

Abstract

Early childhood development around the world faces a lot of challenges in management and implementation of financial grants at the school level. In Kenya, the government provides financial aids to primary schools to foster the management and implementation of ECD, however, many children do not benefit from these grants due to myriads of challenges. The objective of this study was focused on economic, administrative and social challenges facing the implementation of CSG projects in Kakamega Central District. The purpose of the study was to find out the factors influencing the implementation of CSG project in Kakamega Central District. A descriptive survey design was used to carry out this study. The target population was 70 ECD Community support Grant program management committee members (chairman), 70 head teachers and 140 teachers of the ECD in the schools that have received CSG Grants in the District. A sample size of 30% of each of the target population was purposively stratified and randomly sampled. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from respondents. The Data collected was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques and later subjected to SPSS package treatment and Microsoft excel. Frequencies, means and percentages were used to organize, describe and summarize data. A Pearson’s product moment formula for test re-retest was employed to compute the correlation coefficient. Correlation coefficient of r= 0.05 or above was accepted. The validity of the instrument was measured by preparing the instrument to cover each study of the objectives and by seeking the opinion of experts in the department of Planning and Management of the University of Nairobi It is hoped the study shall be of beneficial to the Ministry of Education in redesigning its strategies in funding CSG projects. School management committees should find it prudent in re-evaluating ways of tackling socio-economic and administrative challenges facing implementation of CSG programmes in schools that eventually benefit the learners greatly as their learning environment become learner friendly. In this study it was revealed that the main socio economic and administrative challenges facing the implementation of CSG project were: untimely disbursement of inadequate funds; illiteracy levels among the community members and autocratic leadership coupled with corruption respectively. The study recommends that there need to continuously pre-sensitize the all the stakeholders before the actual implementation of CSG project begins. Government support was found to be lacking and therefore the study strongly agitates for complete partition and involvement of the government. Further research can be done at National level to harmonize effective of such projects in the country. It is believed that the findings of the study may help policy makers to; disburse funds in time, disburse enough funds and monitor the usage of the funds once released to the schools.