Determinants of effective curriculum implementation in Early Childhood Development and Education Centres in Nakuru municipality, Kenya

Abstract

Early childhood education is, in theory, of great importance to the nation's Ministry of Education. It constitutes household, community and the state's efforts to provide integrated development for children from birth to the age of entry into primary school. This study examined the determinants of effective implementation of Early Childhood Development and Education curriculum in both private and public centres in Nakuru Municipality. The study was carried out in established and registered Early Childhood Development and Education centers operating within Nakuru Municipality amongst Head Teachers and teachers.

The specific objectives included: assessing the extent to which institutional capacity affects implementation of Early Childhood Development and Education curriculum; finding out to what extent instructional materials affects implementation of Early Childhood Development and Education curriculum; investigating how the local community participation affects implementation of Early Childhood Development and Education curriculum; and establishing the assessment of Quality Assurance and Standards on effective implementation of early childhood development and education curriculum in Nakuru Municipality.

The study adopted descriptive survey design and purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of the sample for the study. A study sample of 65 respondents was used for the study. Data was collected by use of both structured and unstructured questionnaires and observation checklists. Data collected was then analysed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and Microsoft excel for computation of descriptive statistics (means, frequencies and percentages) and non parametric tests (chi-square tests). After data analysis, the results were presented in the form of tables for interpretation.

The study findings revealed that in most schools teachers' level of education was considered inadequate for the implementation of the program. There was teacher shortage in most of the ECDE schools. Limited institutional capacity was a hindrance to proper implementation of Early Childhood Development and Education curriculum. The quality of instructional material was unreliable and inadequate and therefore posed as a significant challenge affecting the implementation of ECDE program. Assessment of Quality Assurance and Standards on effective implementation of early childhood development and education curriculum in Nakuru Municipality was not satisfactory.

Following this, the study recommended that The Government of Kenya (through Ministry of Education) should consider: organizing workshops for Primary School Head Teachers, so as to mobilize support resources for the ECDE schools; organizing sensitization workshops for the local community, targeting parents and guardians, informing them of the significance of their involvement -in the ECDE program; allocating more resources towards the implementation of ECDE program in schools; organize workshops in curriculum changes for ECDE teachers increasing the number of Zonal officers so as to cope with the large number of ECDE centres in a Zone; and organizing seminars and workshops for Primary School Teachers for attitude change towards the ECDE program. This information is vital to the Ministry of Education for planning purposes.