Influence of continuous professional development programmes on curriculum implementation in selected North Rift Counties public secondary schools, Kenya

Abstract

This papers looks at how utility of continuous professional development of teachers and other staff in schools as a quality assurance standards enhances curriculum implementation. The research was conducted because standards of education had declined in the three counties; Elgeyo-Marakwet, West Pokot and Baringo. For curriculum to be implemented properly, the human resources need to be continuously trained. The respondents for this study teachers and principals of public secondary schools together with quality assurance and standards officers formed the population. Simple random sampling was used to select teachers from 35 sampled schools making a total of 350 out of 3469 teachers in the selected counties. All the principals of sampled schools (35) were included in the study. Fourteen sub county quality assurance and standards officers were selected through purposive sampling method. Data was analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The research found out those continuous professional development opportunities for teachers to increase their knowledge and skills was not regularly provided. This affected curriculum implementation because most teachers were not able to adequately delivery curriculum content as required as they had not adequate knowledge and skills. The research recommends that schools need to prioritise and budget for teachers training during annual school planning. Teachers also need to be motivated to attend in-service training to improve their knowledge and skills towards curriculum implementation.