Teachers’ Preparedness for Implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum in Private Pre-schools in Dagoretti North Sub-county, Nairobi City County

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate teachers’ preparedness for implementation of the competency-based curriculum in private pre-schools in Dagoretti North Sub-County, Nairobi City County. The study sought to determine teachers’ readiness for implementation of the competency-based curriculum, establish teachers’ subject matter knowledge for implementation of the competency-based curriculum, assess teacher’s technological skills for implementation of the competency-based curriculum and establish teachers’ perceptions on the implementation of the competence-based curriculum in private pre-schools. The study adopted descriptive survey design where the target population was 38 private pre-schools, 38 head teachers and 320 pre-school teachers. Simple random sampling was used to select the sample which comprised 108 respondents, 96 pre-school teachers and 12 head teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview schedule. The research findings were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data was processed and analysed with the help of the SPSS software programme and summarised into frequency tables, percentages and a bar graph. The response rate was 103 out of 108 making (95.4%). The findings of the study revealed that majority of head teachers and pre-school teachers have attended in-service training hence majority of them agreed they were prepared to implement the competency-based curriculum. From the findings, majority of the teachers had been adequately prepared and equipped with subject content knowledge. However, the findings showed that majority of the teachers had not been exposed to ICT and most of them were not competent as they lacked technological skills. The findings also indicated that majority of the teachers had a positive attitude towards the competency-based curriculum. From the findings, it was concluded that teachers are prepared to implement the competency-based curriculum. Nonetheless, factors like limited in-service trainings, inadequate learning materials, and many records to keep, a lot of workload, lack of ICT skills among the teachers and lack of parental support were hindering effective implementation of the competency-based curriculum. Considering the findings, the study recommended that the ministry of education and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to organise for more in-service training for teachers to equip them with subject content knowledge, ICT skills and positively change their perceptions about the competency-based curriculum. A similar study should also be conducted in public primary schools on teachers’ preparedness to implement the competency-based curriculum.