Teacher Competency on Learner Promotion in Embu County Integrated Public Primary Schools, Kenya

Abstract

Investing in ECDE is one of the challenging cost-effective commitments that a government can undertake. Investing in quality ECDE can improve a child's well-being and minimize educational and poverty gap. Teacher competence is an important tool towards the realization of holistic development of children. It is with this background that the researcher sought to study teacher competence on Learners' promotion in Embu County integrated public primary schools, Kenya. The study adopted cross-sectional survey research design across a target population of 381 public primary schools, 381 head teachers, 3951 primary teachers and 380 ECD teachers in the five sub-counties. Stratified random sampling was used to select schools from the five sub-counties; simple random sampling was used to select public primary teachers and head teachers in five sub-counties. Questionnaires were utilized as the instruments of the study. Quantitative data collected was analyzed using SPSS software. Based on the results, the study found that most (73%) of the primary teachers are unable to handle ECD pupils transiting to primary section since they could not understand the content taught and teachers have inadequate experience for teaching ECDE class. The study also found that most (50%) of the head teachers do not avail curriculum support materials. The study recommends that the teacher training colleges should incorporate courses that equip teachers with skills to handle pupils transiting from ECD classes to primary section. The schools also should provide books to a pupil book ratio of 1:1 so as to execute the new competent based curriculum.