Influence of Functions of County Government on Performance of Early Childhood Development Education Teachers in Nyando Subcounty, Kisumu County, Kenya

Abstract

The Kenyan Constitution of 2010 devolves the management of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) to county governments. This was a measure to address the challenges that bedevilled the ECDE sector due to the national government’s minimal funding and administration of the sector that resulted to unproductive ECDE teachers. These challenges included understaffing, lack of professional development for ECDE teachers, poor remuneration and poor working conditions. Despite the major milestones realized, especially on access of ECDE since the inception of devolution, various challenges have still continued to undermine the performance of ECDE teachers. Therefore, key functions of county governments that influence teacher performance need to be defined and delineated in order to guide county governments in areas they need to concentrate their efforts for optimum teacher performance. The purpose of this study therefore, was to investigate the influence of county government functions on performance of ECDE teachers in Nyando sub county, Kisumu County, Kenya. The study in particular sought to establish the relationship between recruitment, training, remuneration and working conditions and performance of ECDE teachers in public ECDE centres. The study employed descriptive survey design, a simple random sampling approach was used to select 21 ECDE centres from Nyando sub-county. From each of the selected ECDE centres, purposive sampling was used to select 21 heads of ECDE centres. Equally purposive sampling was used to select Kisumu county director of education ECDE for interview. This study used primary data which was obtained using questionnaires, observation schedules and interview guide. Expert judgement was used to ensure content validity and the test re-test was used to determine reliability of the instruments. Data obtained during the study was fed into excel spread sheet and analysed to produce descriptive statistic. Based on the findings of the study, recruitment, training, remuneration and working conditions are factors affecting lesson preparation and presentation, attendance and punctuality of teachers. The study concludes that insufficient recruitment of ECDE teachers, inadequate in-service training programmes, poor remuneration and poor working conditions impedes the performance of ECDE teachers. The study therefore, recommends that the Kisumu county government should increase its capitation for teacher management.