Factors influencing the quality of academic education in pre-primary schools in lower Yatta District, Kitui county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the quality of Academic education in Pre - primary schools in Lower Yatta District . The study sought to determine the influence of availability of Teaching / Learning resources on t he quality of academic education in Pre - primary schools , how the learning envir onment influences the quality of academic education in Pre - primary schools and the influence of teachers ‟ characteristics on the qualit y of academic education in Pre - primary school in Lower Yatta District . This study adopt ed both descriptive survey design and inferential statistics on a sample of 125 pre - schools teachers, 125 head teachers, and 125 children in 125 public pre - schools; stratified sampling was used to select th e sample to be included in the study. Both a questionnaire and checklist were used for data collecti on. The collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that From the findings of this study the resear cher made the following conclusions. First, majority of the schools had teaching and learning materials in their schools. These included activities, books , puzzles, charts and flash cards and that there is significant relationship between availability of T eaching /L earning resources and the quality of academic education. This means the more the T eaching /L earning material the better the quality of education. Secondly, there is significant relationship between learning environment and the quality of academic education in Pre - primary schools. This means that the learning environment gre atly influences the quality of academic education . Finally, there is a significant relationship between teachers‟ characteristics and the quality of academic education meaning th e teacher characteristics affects the academic quality. From the findings of this study the researcher recommended that t here is need for the ministry of education to allocate funds for funding pre - school T eaching /L earning materials. The school head teache rs should improve the learning environment for their schools so as to improve academic education , th e DE O s office should organize in - service trainings for pre - school teachers so as to improve their teache r s characteristics and parents should be highly invo lved in the learning activities of their children so as to improve the quality of academic education .