| dc.description.abstract | The major developmental goals of the Kenya government is the attainment of Universal Primary Education CUPE) by the year 2005 and Education for all (EF A) by 2015. To achieve this goal. the government has adopted several strategies and measures since independence, the later one being the declaration of Free Primary Education (FPE) in January 2003. However the attainment of the goal of UPE seems to be elusive.
The main objective of this study was to investigate the administrative challenges that public primary school headteachers face in implementing FPE in Borabu division Nyamira District. This was survey research that targeted 57 headteachers of public primary schools were randomly sampled. All the headteachers from the sampled schools participated in this study. The main instrument for data collection was the questionnaires. Document analysis was also done at district offices. division and zonal offices . The analysis of this data revealed the major administrative challenges that headteachers in public primary schools face in implementing FPE challenges were grouped into four main task areas and the headteachers were required to rank each in order of their seriousness. The most serious was ranked one and the least ranked number seven or eight.
Curriculum and instruction task area challenges were ranked in the following order.
Teaching in overcrowded classrooms, problem of getting along with pupils, problem of planning and organizing school programme, problem of supervising teachers, problem of selecting and acquiring instructional materials for each class, problem of presenting of content/subject matter, inadequate textbooks and exercise books for pupils and inadequate reference books for teachers, provision of guidance and counseling to all students on how to cope with the challenges they face in school and at home with view of working hard to alleviate them through education. conducting seminars for parents on the role of the parent in educating his/her child. improving physical facilities especially the sanitary facilities for the girls and holding parents' meetings/day regularly and other school member with a view of re-evaluating the school progress and activities.
Finally the research explored the relevance of the in-service courses that headteachers undergo as away of tackling the administrative challenges they face. The research revealed that most headteachers had done the following in-service courses financial management. bookkeeping, management of school resources, management of pupils, students procurement of goods, budget preparation, quality assessment and development and library management.
Lastly, the study gives recommendations that may help to curb the administrative challenges and also offers suggestions for further research.
a). A further study can be conducted on the impact of UPE/FPE on the quality of education offered in public primary schools in Kenya.
b). A study on the impact of in-service courses on headteachers on the general management of the FPE programme need to be done so to find out the actual monitoring and evaluation of the FPE activities.
c). Since this study was limited in one division there is need for replication of this study using larger population of public primary schools in the entire country to elicit a more accurate national perspective on the major administrative challenges public primary school headteachers face in implementing FPE. | en |
