Instructional materials provision on learners’ participation in early childhood development and education in public primary schools in Embu County, Kenya

Abstract

Early Childhood Development and Education advancement is aligned to the global consensus that helps in development of children’s emotional, intellectual, social and physical well-being. It is with this background that the study sought to establish the instructional material provision on learner participation in Early Childhood Development and Education in public primary schools in Embu County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: establish acquisition of instructional materials; assess the quality of instructional materials; determine the sharing of instructional materials; establish the effect of book/pupil ratio on progression. The study targeted head, ECDE, lower and upper primary teachers in 381 primary and 380 ECD schools. Stratified random sampling was used to select schools from the five sub counties. Purposive random sampling was used to select teachers. Descriptive survey design was used to collect the data by the use of questionnaires. Collected data was analyzed using SPSS. Results were presented in form of frequency tables, graphs. From the findings, 70.3% of the primary teachers showed that the schools get instructional materials from the county government though not adequate, 55% of the ECD teachers said that materials were of high quality since they prepared them, 67.5% of ECD teachers agreed they share materials with Grade 1 and 33.3% ECD teachers stated that book/pupil ratio negatively affects children ability to do homework. The study recommends that the county government in partnership with other stakeholders should provide adequate instructional materials in ECD schools in the county.

Keywords: ECDE instructional materials, ECDE pupil-textbook ratio, ECD participation, ECDE school resources, ECDE in Embu, education quality.

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