Factors Affecting Implementation of Competency Based Curriculum of Education in Primary Schools in Nairobi City

Abstract

The Kenyan education landscape has changed with the adoption of the Competence based curriculum (CBC) strategy. The implementation of the strategy successful requires understanding of the integration of CBC with the existing learning environment and undertaking the necessary adjustments. Consequently, the current research aimed at evaluating the factors affecting the implementation of the CBC of education in primary school with focus in Nairobi County. The research adopted descriptive survey research design to facilitate evaluate the research problem. The target population were teachers in primary school that teach CBC. The sampling frame was public primary school that have implemented CBC and the teachers within the school that take part in teaching CBC. Random sampling was used in sampling schools visited with the sample being 34 school. Then stratified sampling was used in which schools were considered as the strata, and under each school the grades were divided into two strata, pp1 and pp2 as one strata and grade 1 to 6 as the other strata. Purposive sampling was used to sample 1 teacher in each stratum with the target of 68 teachers. Data collection was undertaken through a questionnaire survey. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used in management and analysis of the data. A total of 62 teacher submitted complete questionnaires that were adopted for the analysis. A total of 46.8% of surveyed responded were male teachers, 41.9% were female teachers while 11.3% prefer not to say their gender. From the analysis, it was confirmed that the majority of the teachers sampled (69.35%), had at least a degree with the remaining teachers (30.65%) having attained diploma as the highest level of education. In the evaluation of the factors affecting implementation of CBC included infrastructure available in schools not being adequate for successful implementation with a mean score of 4.52 out of 5; inadequate training of teachers that had a mean score of 3.98; inadequate teachers to teach CBC at the school leading to large class size that had a score of 3.77; teachers not fully prepared for the implementation of competency-based curriculum (3.55) and lack of sufficient supervision of CBC (3.05); and lack of cooperation from the parents in the CBC implementation. Additionally, lack of resources was a major challenge too which included inadequate library access (3.89), laboratories (3.66), text books (3.65), classrooms (3.55), workshops (3.48), and illustration and charts (3.48). The solution strategies described by the teachers on improvement of CBC strategy included developing of effective policy guiding the implementation of CBC in the country; involvement of parents during parent’s teacher’s association meetings; increasing the number of teachers that are able to teach CBC and provision of adequate resources and facilities. From the research findings, it was recommended for further research be undertaken on evaluating the perspective of other stakeholders (learners and parents) on the factors impacting the implementation of CBC strategy.