Lecturers and students perceptions of adequacy of teaching and learning resources in advent of Covid-19 at Kenya Medical Training College – Kenya

Abstract

Background: Teaching and learning resources are very essential to pedagogy. However, challenges such as lack of adequate human resources, physical facilities, teaching aids, and finances existed due to high students’ intake. In the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the above challenges were made worse by the health requirements to mitigate against the pandemic. Objective: The study investigated lecturers and student’s perception of the adequacy of human resources, physical facilities, teaching aids, and financial resources, in the advent of COVID-19 at Kenya Medical Training College. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study setting was the Eastern Region, selected out of the eight regions of Kenya through simple random sampling. The eastern region has four Campuses offering Medical Laboratory Sciences, namely Machakos, Kitui, Embu, Meru, and all were selected through census sampling. The study population was all 18 lecturers and 220 students proportionately sampled. The data collection instruments were interview guides and self-administered closed and open-ended questionnaires. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for both descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency) and inferential statistics (Spearman’s rank test, T-test, and ANOVA). Then presented in percentages, frequency tables, bar charts, pie charts, histograms, and narratives. Results: The response rate was 100% (18 lecturers, 220 students). The majority of the lecturers and students had a mean age was 38 years and 22 years respectively. The majority of students and lecturers were not satisfied with the adequacy of human resources with a mean of 3.2048 and (std. deviation =1.38616) and a mean of 1.5833 and (std. deviation=.51493) respectively. The majority of students perceived the state of physical facilities to be in a poor state with a mean of 1.76 and (std. deviation =0.413) while the majority of lecturers felt that the physical facilities were inadequate with an average mean of 1.6. and (std. deviation =0.418). The satisfaction level of the majority of students and lecturers on teaching aids was a mean of 3.01 (std. deviation=1.459), representing neutral to very inadequate. All four Heads of departments (100%) indicated that the budget allocation was inadequate. Spearman’s rank test showed a very strong correlation between government funds and donor funds, recurrent budget allocation, and development funds with a very strong coefficient correlation of 1.0000. t-test on the satisfaction level of lecturers and students on the adequacy of human resources, physical facilities, and teaching aids was not satisfied, with a p-value of (p>0.05) thus there was no significant difference. One-way ANOVA to assess the relationships between study year, age, number of classes, state of facilities, and student satisfaction level yielded a p-value (P<0.05), which was statistically significant. Conclusion: The majority of students and lecturers perceived that there were insufficient teaching and learning resources. All Heads of Departments pointed out there was lack of adequate financial resources in the advent of COVID-19. Recommendations: There is a need for Kenya Medical Training College to avail adequate teaching and learning resources.