Investigation Of Quality Of Early Childhood Teacher Education Programmes In Thika Sub-County, Kiambu County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the quality of teacher education programmes for pre-primary school teachers in Thika Sub-county (formally Thika municipality). The objectives of the study were to: find out how often the early childhood training colleges are inspected for quality and certified; find out the level of availability and professional qualification of tutors; find out the perceptions of early childhood education managers on the quality of pre-primary teachers graduating from the early childhood education teacher training colleges ; and to establish the policy measures needed to improve quality of teacher education programmes for Early childhood school teachers measured against the established curriculum and mode of training for ECD teachers. The study applied the descriptive survey research design to find out the quality of teacher education programmes for pre-primary school teachers. The target population was all the college managers, tutors, and trainees attending the pre-school teacher training colleges in Thika Municipality. Simple random sampling was used to select 3 pre-primary teacher training colleges out of 7 pre-primary colleges. The study sample was comprised of 3 college managers, 21 college tutors, 70 trainees and 3 Ministry representatives (from NACECE, DICECE, and DQASO), giving a total sample size of 101 respondents. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to aid analysis of quantitative data. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis based on the study objectives. The study found out that the Ministry of Education did not inspect ECE colleges regularly and there was no mechanism for trainees to give feedback on their programmes. The study further found out that the colleges did not have adequate teaching and learning resources. The study also found out that the colleges did not have adequate number of tutors who were qualified. The study concludes that there was more to be done to improve the quality of teaching and learning in ECE colleges. The study recommends that the government should offer learning facilities to the institutions to provide equality in all the institution. The study also recommends that the students be provided with a variety of digital materials related to their areas of study within the school.