The role of Teachers’ training in effective implementation of life skills curriculum in Secondary Schools in Eldoret East District, Kenya

Abstract

The teacher is the most important ingredient in the effective teaching and learning and more so the life skills. It is therefore important that teachers are very well prepared to meet this new challenge of teaching life skills. The success of a teacher largely depends on his/her personal context, personal efforts and his/her general personality. These characteristics can be greatly enhanced if a teacher receives specialized training in methods of teaching life skills education programme. This prompted the author to carry out a study in life skills teaching in secondary schools in Eldoret East District in Kenya. This paper discusses the findings on how the training of teachers influences life skills education in the study area. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The techniques used to select the research sample were stratified, purposive and simple random sampling. Two hundred and forty (240) students, 45 teachers and 15 heads of humanities department were selected to participate in the study. To collect data, questionnaire and interview schedule were used. Data collected were coded in Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSSv 13.5) and analysed by non parametric Chisquare (χ2 ) test, descriptive statistics and frequency distribution. The findings were presented in form of tables, charts and graphs. The study revealed that teachers were not fully prepared to teach life skills and were in dire need of in-service courses for effective teaching. It was therefore recommended the Ministry of Education through KIE should facilitate in-service training of LSE teachers at least once per year and provide clear guidelines on how to teach the contents of LSE. Investigation into teachers’ classroom competence has yielded findings, which can be used for the betterment of teaching and learning of life skills in Kenyan secondary schools. Curriculum developers would find the research findings useful as they reflect on the extent in which the objectives set for the course are being achieved.