| dc.description.abstract | Nursery education is the foundation of any education that strengthens any economy. Due to its importance, it serves as a source of knowledge, skills and attitudes that is a base to the child future education. The nursery school teachers have a role of ensuring that the pupils' performance encourages them to have a positive attitude towards the teachers' career. According to the government plans and budgets for education in Kenya, twenty percent (20%) of the budget in the country is spent on the education sector of which 90% of the money allocated for education is spent on teachers who are employed by the government as salary. The Nursery teachers depend on fees paid by parents and some funds from the local government which are not adequate and do no benefit all the schools.
The performance of the public nursery school teachers has remained low as was established from the head teachers in the study area that majority of the nursery school going children lacked the basic reading and writing skills when they proceed to class one. There is also little or no emphasis on employment of nursery school teachers by the local government in Matungu District of Kakamega County. Out of 264 public nursery teachers in the district, only one teacher is employed by the local government according to the ministry of education office in Matungu District. This represents 0.137% of the total population of the teachers in Matungu District. This is a very small percentage of the public nursery teachers' population employed by the local government. However, very little is known and documented about the factors that influence the performance of public nursery school teachers in Matungu District.
It is on this basis that the study sought to find out the factors that influence the performance of public nursery school teachers in Matungu District. The study was conducted through crosssectional survey design in Matungu District, Kakamega County. The target population was 264 public nursery school teachers in 132 public nursery schools in the district. Simple random technique was employed to determine a sample population of 60 who were interviewed during the study Data was collected using structured questionnaires developed by the researcher according to the objectives of the study. After data collection, the responses were organized, coded and entered into the computer for analysis using descriptive statistics. The descriptive statistics included percentages, frequencies and was presented in tables. It was established that job satisfaction and training of nursery school teachers had a significant influence on the performance of those teachers in Matungu District, Kakamega County.
The study therefore concluded that the performance of public nursery school teachers depended greatly on job satisfaction and the level of training acquired by nursery school teachers in the district of study. The research study therefore recommended that public nursery teachers should strengthen their experience by undertaking further courses within the reach of their careers. Similarly promotion and motivation strategies should be clearly laid down to instigate steady self esteem among teachers to boost performance. In the same way public nursery teachers' salary should be revised by the employer to mitigate external ventures that drag and divert the strategies laid down for better performance. | en_US |
