Effectiveness of implementing life skills curriculum in primary schools in Murang’a east sub-county, Murang’a county, Kenya

Abstract

Currently, there is a great concern over the alarming cases of drugs and substance abuse, adolescent pregnancies, poor academic performance, truancy, chronic absenteeism, school drop outs; HIV and AIDS prevalence, jiggers’ manifestations and early marriages. This prevails among pupils in primary schools especially in class eight. Therefore, this calls for dire need for investigation into the effective implementation of LSC in public primary schools in Murang’a East Sub-County in Murang’a County. LSC is aimed at equipping learners with psychological competencies that would help them make formal decisions, solve problems, think creatively and critically, communicate effectively and build healthy relationships. The objectives of the study was to establish the extent to which life skills curriculum resources are utilized, determine the appropriateness of approaches used in teaching life skills curriculum, establish the extent to which curriculum objectives have been attained examine the extent to which school environment affects teaching/learning of life skills curriculum in public primary schools in Murang’a East Sub-County. The study adopted descriptive survey design and stratified random sampling. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. The instruments were piloted in at least ten schools in the same Sub-County which were not included in the final study sample. The target population was the public primary schools, their head teachers, teachers and pupils. The sample size was 10 schools, 10 head teachers, 40 teachers and 240 learners. Reliability of the instrument was determined using test-retest technique. Data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively using simple statistics such as frequency and percentages. The findings of the study indicated that LSC programme was not implemented uniformly in public primary schools in Murang’a East Sub-County. This is due to the fact that most schools had no LSC syllabus, textbooks and other necessary teaching materials. It was recommended that head teachers should ensure that LSC syllabus, textbooks and other teaching materials should be made available. This should be as per the guidelines made by MoEST and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. When all these teaching and learning materials are provided, there will be minimal cases of HIV and AIDS prevalence, jiggers’ manifestation, early marriages, truancy and other vices among learners. The study also found that implementation of LSC was influenced by lack of qualified teachers and inadequate time allocation. Recommendations were made that LSC teachers should be adequately trained on how to implement LSC. They should also be given adequate time as one lesson per week is not sufficient. When LSC is given more attention and more time, there will be changes in behavior among learners hence improved performance. Teaching strategies such as discussion, storytelling, games, question and answer, case study, poems and songs were inadequately used in the teaching of LSC. It was recommended that regular workshops and seminars should be conducted to equip LSC teachers with necessary skills and knowledge on how to implement LSC. When LSC teachers are well equipped, with LSC skills, they are in a better position of imparting LSC values and attitudes hence curbing undesirable behaviours among learners. Both teachers and pupils emphasized that LSC should be examinable and seminars be conducted oftenly. Recommendations were made to head teachers to ensure that they implement the policies according to MoEST guidelines. MoEST should ensure that there is monitoring and evaluation of LSC. Future researchers should conduct research on impact of LSC implementation in Murang’a East Sub-County