Tutors’ Characteristics Influencing Curriculum Implementation in Pre-school Colleges’ in Murang’a East Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate tutor characteristics influencing curriculum implementation in pre-schools colleges in Murang’a East Sub County. The study objectives were to determine the influence of tutors’ attitudes, tutors’ qualifications, tutors’ gender and tutors’ professional experience on curriculum implementation in preschool colleges. The study employed a descriptive study design. Simple random sampling method was used to sample. 48 preschool tutors and 86 learners in preschool colleges from a target population of 48 preschool tutors and 150 students. Both questionnaires and interview schedules were used in data collection. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to generate frequencies, descriptive, cross-tabulation, chi-square tests as well as correlation coefficient statistics that were used to answer the research questions .The major findings of the study were that tutors have a positive attitude, majority of the tutors only had minimum qualifications of certificate and diploma, majority of the tutors are women and majority had experience of more than 2 years. The following conclusions were drawn: that there was no significant relationship between tutors’ attitudes and curriculum implementation, tutors’ professional qualification has significant influence on curriculum implementation, gender of tutors had no significant influence on curriculum implementation while tutors’ professional experience had a significant influence on curriculum implementation. The following recommendations were made: The County government and other educational stake holders ensure that motivation levels of preschool college tutors are increased, including their remuneration to increase their retention in teaching positions, The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development should promote continuous tutor development through in-service programs. The government should vigorously campaign against stereotyping of preschool education profession.