Factors affecting supervision of Early Childhood Education Curriculum Programmes: A case of Nandi Hills Division, Nandi East District, Kenya

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting supervision of Early Childhood Education Curriculum Programmes. The specific objectives were: to find out factors affecting supervision of early childhood education curriculum in ECD centers, to establish the influences of training on the attitude of ECDE teachers towards supervision of early childhood education curriculum, to establish indicators of effect of effective supervision of early childhood education curriculum on performance of ECD schools, to find out challenges facing the ministry of education officials as they carry out supervision of early childhood curriculum in ECD centers and policies to be adopted for effective supervision of early childhood development curriculum in schools. The study was guided by Allan Glathorm's (1997) differential supervision model. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Stratified sampling technique was used to obtain public ECD centers and private ECDE centers, while simple random sampling was used to get 32 public ECD centers and 15 private ECD centers, from 155 centers in the district. All head teachers from selected ECD centers were involved in the study and one ECD teacher from each selected centre. Five field officers were selected for the study using purposive sampling. Data collection instruments involved the use of the following: questionnaires, interview schedule and document analysis. Descriptive statistics (percentages and bar graphs) and inferential statistics (regression analysis) were used to analyze data. The findings of the study noted that supervision of the ECDE curriculum is affected by lack of funding, poor infrastructure, lack of support from the management, dispersion of the ECD centers, interference from local leaders and sponsors. Training in ECD had a positive influence on teacher attitudes by way of improving the quality of instruction, enabled the realization of individual potential, and encouraged appreciation of pupil's entry behaviors. Supervision propelled the teachers' intellectual abilities, helped them to unearth the children's potential, and led to positive appraisal of pupils The study also identified the following challenges faced by field officers in their supervisory duties: poor infrastructure; parental ignorance, unclear education policy, lack of proper ECDE teacher registration records and lack of support from management. The study recommended the harmonization of ECDE curriculum, employment of ECDE teachers by the government and quality remuneration of those ECDE teachers. r ,