Influence of school based teacher development programme on the perfomance of English in public primary schools of Mwingi Central District, Kenya

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of School Based Teacher Development programme on the performance of English in Public Primary Schools of Mwingi Central District in Kenya. The purpose of the study was to establish the effectiveness of the implementation of the programme that was meant to in-service English Primary School Teachers to enable them teach the subject effectively. The study intended to create more insight on the extent to which the programme promoted the effectiveness to the English teachers in the Primary Schools of the District. Descriptive design was used in carrying out this study. The targeted population was all the English Primary School teachers and their head teachers in Mwingi Central District.

The sample consisted of 61 KRTs, 58 Non KRTs and 31 head teachers. The study used 40 public primary schools which were randomly selected from the 91 public primary schools within the district. A questionnaire for both KRTs and Non KRTs was used to collect data while the head teachers were interviewed. The data was analysed by use of descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. This was done by use of SPSS software packages. As for the SbTD Programme the study established that only 30% of the English teachers were inducted into the programme. As for the effectiveness of the programme the study found out that the programme actually improved English performance in the district when it was incepted.

Hence the programme in itself is useful rather it is the challenges it faced that demonised it. Pertaining the measures which could be employed to overcome the challenge, the respondents make an appeal to T.S.C. to deal with the issues of under staffing in order to create time for the induction. KRTs should be promoted to diploma levels in order to motivate them to roll out the programme. Lastly a coherent and strategic plan for continuous professional development for not only primary teachers but all teachers should be established by the government.