Factors influencing implementation of Kiswahili curriculum in public primary schools in Igoji division, Meru county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing implementation of Kiswahili curriculum in public primary schools in Igoji Division, Meru County. The following were objectives of the study; to examine the extent to which availability of teaching and learning resources influence implementation of Kiswahili curriculum, to determine the influence of teaching methods on implementation of Kiswahili curriculum, to establish how teacher training influences implementation of Kiswahili curriculum, to examine the extent to which attitude of pupils towards Kiswahili influence implementation of the curriculum and to determine how teachers teaching experience influences the implementation of Kiswahili curriculum in public primary schools. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The researcher targeted Kiswahili teachers, the class eight pupils and the headteachers. The sample population of thirty percent, was arrived at by using stratified proportionate sampling technique to sample schools, purposive sampling to sample the headteachers and teachers. Simple ballot sampling was used to select the pupils. A sample of thirteen schools, thirteen headteachers, sixty one Kiswahili teachers and one hundred and forty nine standard eight pupils was therefore used in this study. The data was collected using the questionnaires that were administered to teachers, pupils and interview schedule to the headteachers. Qualitative data was sorted into homogenous themes and coded. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data and information presented using frequency tables, charts and graphs. The study findings established that implementation of Kiswahili curriculum was influenced by inadequate teaching, learning resources and attitude of the learners. The findings also revealed that 43.1% of teachers had never attended any in-service training on the Kiswahili curriculum. The study also revealed that most teachers integrated all the teaching methods at different levels thus having little influence on teaching of Kiswahili. It was also established that 66.2% of Kiswahili teachers were trained however 33.8% of the Kiswahili teachers had not been trained in teaching the subject. Findings established that most of the learners do not like learning Kiswahili and teachers had difficulties in pushing learners to learn. Pupils viewed Kiswahili as a hard subject. The study recommends that the government should provide qualified teaching personnel to meet the needs of the learners and those areas of weakness in Kiswahili curriculum should be identified so that more emphasis is put during the training of teachers. These are among other many key recommendations in this study. The study recommends that the training of Kiswahili teachers should be intensified in the training colleges. The researcher further recommends that audio-visual aids, resource persons should be used to make learning more interesting to the pupils. These are among other many recommendations in this study