Implementation Of Life Skills Education In Secondary School In Uriri And Awendo Districts, Migori County Kenya

ABSTRACT

There had been a concern over the rising cases of emerging issue like drug and substance, abuse, adolescent pregnancy, abortion, poor performance, truancy, absenteeism, suicide, dropout, HIV and AIDS prevalence among students in secondary schools. This called for the need to investigate or assess the effective implementation of Life Skills Education curriculum in public secondary schools in Uriri and Awendo districts in Migori County. LSE is aimed at equipping the learners with psychosocial competencies that would help them make formal decisions, solve problems, think creatively and critically, communicate effectively and build healthy relationships. The target populations were the public secondary schools, their principals, teachers and students. The objectives of the study to guide the research were: to find out how effective the implementation of LSE in secondary schools, establish from teachers and students the adequacy of LSE resource/materials e.g. books, assess strategies used in teaching LSE, examine the head teachers’ attitude towards the implementation of LSE and to establish the challenges teachers/students are facing in secondary schools in implementing LSE and get student/teachers’ suggestions on how teaching of Life Skills can be improved. The study adopted descriptive survey design and stratified random sampling. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. The instruments were piloted in at least five schools in the same districts which were not included in the final study sample. Reliability of the instruments was determined by the use of split-half method of Spearman Brown Prophesy formula. Data were analyzed qualitatively using simple statistics such as frequency and percentages through SPSS programme. The analysis was represented using statistical tables and bar-graphs. The findings of the study are that LSE program was not implemented uniformly in schools in the two Districts. This is because most schools did not have teaching curriculum for LSE due to the fact that the schools had no LSE syllabus, text books and other materials necessary for learning LSE. Also the study found that the implementation was influenced by lack of qualified teachers and enough time allocated for LSE. The study finally found out that teaching strategies such as; discussions, debates on relevant topics, storytelling on different topics, use of case studies on how to solve particular problems, having sessions for questions and answers, and use of songs and dances were inadequately used in the teaching of LSE. Both teachers and students emphasized that LSE should be examinable and seminars should be held occasionally on the proper implementation. Recommendations were made to the principals that they should make sure that they implement the policies according to the Ministry of Education guidelines. The MoE should consider involving all the education stakeholders in formulating policies, this way the stakeholders will own policies and they will be easy to implement them without being seen like they are enforcing them on schools. MoE, should ensure there is monitoring and evaluation. Future researchers should conduct research on the impacts of LSE implementation in Uriri and Awendo.