Early childhood education in the context of county government management: a comparison of learner performance between public and private schools in Kenya

Abstract

The Kenya 2010 Constitution placed management and financing of Early Years’ Education (EYE) under custody of County Governments. As such management and efficiency of early childhood education is expected to be more effective in offering quality ECDE in the counties than it was before devolution. This study emerges from the theoretical perspective that increased inputs should lead to increased outputs. The Education Production Function theory was employed. Increased expenditure after devolution and budgeting could change the quality of ECDE in counties. The purpose of this comparative study was to identify, compare and discuss factors which influence, and how they interact to influence, learning and achievement in public and private ECDE centres in the context of increased funding by the County Government. The objectives were: to compare qualifications and experience of staff in public and private ECDE centres; to compare teaching/learning methods and facilities used by teachers in public and private ECDE centres; to analyze factors affecting performance in public and private ECDE centres; and to use regression analysis to determine the factor with the highest affinity with achievement in ECDE centres. The location selected for this study was Kericho County. The target population for this study was all the 750 public and 258 private ECDE centres. This target population comprised of all the 1,066 teachers and 18,405 pupils in public ECDE Centres as well as all the 628 teachers and 4,180 pupils in private ECDE centres in Pre-Primary 2 (PP 2) in Kericho County. Sampling was done through stratified, purposive and simple random sampling methods. The sample size was determined using Krejcie and Morgan formula which gave a sample size of 254 teachers and 375 pupils from the public ECDE Centres and 155 teachers and 351 pupils from private ECDE Centres. In order to compare the impact of selected independent variables on academic achievement among ECDE learners the researcher chose to conduct a cross-sectional correlation survey study. Tools for data collection included questionnaires, observation schedules, document analysis guides, and interview guides. The instruments were piloted in the neighboring Bomet County. Qualitative and quantitative data collected was analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The quantitative techniques involved descriptive and inferential statistics in order to answer the questions posed for study. The results obtained showed that despite the increased funding to public schools, private schools had high academic achievement among learners. The study provides useful information for education policy makers in both levels of government for decision making with regard to devolution of management of ECDE centres, funding and academic performance. Proposed guidelines are intended to deliver, accountability for EYE funding, service delivery and increased quality service. The major findings of this study shows that inspite of funding by the County Government, Private ECDE centres continue to outshine their counterparts in the Public ECDE centres. This implies that there are other underlying factors that affect performance at this level other than funding. The findings were used to develop a model for County Government to establish uniform qualification of ECDE staff, common methodology to improve teaching and learning facilities hence universal instructions leading to achievement among pre-primary school learners.