Influence of Secondary School Curriculum on Students’ Development of Life Skills for Climate Change Adaptation in Kalobeyei Settlement, Turkana West, Kenya

Abstract

This study examines the influence of the secondary school curriculum on students’ development of life skills for climate change adaptation in Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, Turkana West, Kenya. The first objective of the study was to assess students’ levels of acquired life skills for climate change (CC) adaptation and examine how trends in those levels develop in forms 1-4. The second research objective was to investigate how individual subjects in the curriculum and extracurricular activities influence the development of life skills for CC adaptation in Kalobeyei. The last research objective was to determine to what extent activities by NGOs and UN agencies, influence students ‘development of life skills for CC adaptation in secondary schools. The design used in the study is a descriptive survey design. The study used purposive sampling for data collection with a sample size of 889 respondents and received a 98.09% successful return rate. The main findings of the study are; that a limited rising influence of the curriculum on the development of students’ life skills for CC adaptation was recorded from Form 1-3 whereafter a decline was revealed in Form 4. Of the 10 subjects that the study examined, the subject of Agriculture has the highest level of influence on students’ life skills development for climate change adaptation. In contrast, the subject of Christian Religious Education has the lowest level of influence. The influence of both NGOs programming and extracurricular activities were shown to have limited influence on students’ life skills development for climate change adaptation. The study concludes by first recommending formally integrating climate change education into the Kenyan secondary school curriculum. Secondly; to contextualize climate education in the curriculum to respond to the challenges posed by climate change in Kalobeyei and finally to strengthen climate change education in secondary schools, especially in Form 4.