ABSTRACT
Education is universally recognized as a vital tool in the course of national development. In order to learn new skills, capacity building of teachers is encouraged. The rationale of this study was to investigate the influence of capacity building Heads of Departments (HODs) on KCSE performance in public secondary schools in Kericho County. In Kericho County the capacity building of heads of department was last conducted in the year 2013 by SMASSE before KEMI took over. The performance of KCSE has been decreasing over the last five years (2013—2017) the least mean score being 3.408 which is below average. The study was guided by the following objectives: To determine the influence of Capacity Building of HODs on Implementation of Curriculum, to determine the influence of Capacity Building of HODs on supervision, to establish the challenges encountered by schools on Capacity Building, and to identify the strategies that can be taken by schools so as to train Heads of Departments at school level so as to improve KCSE performance of public schools in Kericho County. The study was used the Theory of Human Capital Theory by Becker and Gerhart (1996) which gave a deeper insight to this research study. The study adopted descriptive survey design which was suitable for this study. The target population was composed of 200 Principals, 1000 Heads of Departments and 2000 Teachers totaling to 3200. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling was used to get a sample of 1280 respondents. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. The data obtained was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version-21).Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques were used to analyze the collected data which was then presented in form of pie-chats, frequency tables and graphs and thematically explained. The study found out lack of time and financial resources for capacity building for HODs affected curriculum implementation. Majority of the schools held internal seminars to instill efficiency in performance although they had inadequate teachers and incentives. The challenges were critical in terms of inadequate teachers, heavy workload and scarce financial resources. Majority of the respondents preferred the government to sponsor their Capacity Building trainings instead of relying on their already migre salaries. With this in place then there will be success in curriculum implementation through efficiency and effectiveness in learning and performance. In conclusion Principals, HODs and teachers agreed that they had done very little in full curriculum implementation and professional development leading to poor performance in national exams in subsequent years. The study recommends that the TSC and the MoE should constantly review its policies to accommodate changing needs of Teachers and HODs in full Capacity Building. Secondly, establishment of affordable capacity building programmes for all teachers and HODs. Thirdly, the government to sponsor the professional development of all the educators to improve efficiency and effectiveness. A further study in Capacity Building on curriculum implementation was suggested upon completion of this research study in other institutions of learning.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This chapter presented the background of the study, the statement of the problem, purpose of the study, specific objectives, research questions, significance of the study, limitation and delimitation, assumptions, the theoretical and conceptual framework of the study and lastly the operational definition of terms.
Background of the Study
One of the imperative challenges affecting education in the world, with Kenya not being left out, is how to advance the worth of teaching and gaining knowledge in learning institutions, which in turn will hasten the academic performance of the individual students and the schools in general. It’s a topic of address both in developing and developed countries and notwithstanding its widespread acceptance and wide usage, the concept had not been clearly understood almost by all interested parties in education (Egbo, 2013). Teachers’ Capacity Building is having teachers undergo intellectual activities deliberately designed and meant to advance their knowledge with an intention to replicate such knowledge in the classroom activities so as to have a positive impact on the students (Stocklin, 2011).
This consists of designed and planned short tenure training programmes and class designed to meet assorted specialized needs of teaching, school management and headship (Giwa (2012). It aims at improving teachers’ ability, understanding and capability in granting the proper schooling of teachers and the prerequisite of vital resources and infrastructure (Baser and Heather, 2017). These encourage sustainable
teacher dedication to useful education practices as well as guarantee the successful accomplishment of the nation’s educational guidelines. The key feature associated with the quality of education recount to teacher superiority on the implementation of the curriculum (Panigrahi, 2012). The role teachers play in the building and safeguarding the future of any society through the education investment of its members has long been known in all societies of the world. Capacity Building of teachers should be channeled towards changes in student’s performance and this should be a replication of what the teachers have gained from the skills gained, knowledge and positive attitudinal transformation (Tam, 2014).
The value of teaching and learning in schools translate to school success and student performance. Therefore, the process of education delivery which is the academic performance relies on the administration of education activities both at institution and national level (Kaufman, 2017). This has seen both the school and the government roll out capacity building so as to guarantee that educational managers are informed to have essential management skills and knowledge (Tendler, 2017). In their view Rogan & Grayson (2004) argue that Capacity Building differs depending on education, custom and structure. In places where teacher learning programmes are recognized in the education system, the programme is seen as a way of taking up all activities that seeks to advance school teaching and learning.
United States of America and United Kingdom have engineered great efforts in improving student performance by centering on teacher quality. They have been in the lead in the expansion of teaching principles and policies for enhancing effective teaching (Jacob and Lefgren, 2004). It is important for teachers to undergo intensive
training for them to be able to impart positively on students they are teaching. An effective teachers’ mandate is to team up and share experiences to progress students’ performance (Wei, 2009).
Knowledge, beliefs and values of the teacher converge to bring forth the creation of a suitable learning situation for learners, making the teacher an important influence in education for inclusion and the advancement of the inclusive school (Reynolds (2009). The improved teacher education curriculum ought to grant the finest way of creating an innovative cohort of teachers who will make sure the triumphant realization of inclusive policies and practices (Franks, 2017).
Conversely, even though teachers’ are a significant resource to student learning, in some cases, teachers are responsible for poor students’ performance. Teachers are held responsible for the anguish in schools, in that they are not as dutiful and keen to the cause of education as their forerunners while teachers fault it on parents and the children (Egbo, 2011). They also hold the government responsible for unappealing state of service where capacity building is inclusive and poor physical amenities in some elements of the educational system (Cohen, 2017). The realization of student achievement gains requires teachers to have; content, pedagogical understanding and skills on how to pass these information to others, understanding learners and their development, having general abilities for organizing, observing, explaining ideas, thinking diagnostically and having adaptive expertise for making judgment in light of student needs in a given context (Darling-Hammond, 2012).
In most Sub-Saharan Africa countries, measures are constantly being put in place to support and ease effective teaching to improve students’ performance but observed with many financial challenges (Pretorius, 2012). It is noted that Africa has enough policies, means and processes to guarantee quality of teacher education hence need for stirring and up-scaling the on-going teacher quality improvement efforts and putting these policies on Capacity Building becomes a challenge in terms of inadequate resources and misplaced priorities (Sanyal, 2013). Building Capacity of teachers as they are made aware of their responsibilities increases their job performance in schools. In addition prompt evaluation of teacher development program should be carried out to ensure the type of training that schools are providing for the teachers Albright (2006).
In Kenya, Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI) conducts capacity building of teachers, the institute establishment was based on the suggestions of the National Committee on Education Policies (NCOEP). KEMI sole purpose is to make the ability of teaching personnel to embrace delivery of education services competently and effectively (Gumba, 2017). KEMI being a Capacity Building Agency with the Ministry of Education is mandated to arrange and carry out training for staff involved in the supervision and running of education programmes (Olaniyan, 2017). It is a scheme of progressing professional and tackling the concerns of Capacity Building, with funds from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (Mubarak, 2017). KEMI initiated Diploma in Education Management course, which trains available heads of department teachers enrolled. The topics taught include; Performance Contract Support Training Program for teachers and learners, Monitoring and Evaluation for committees of
educational institutions, Curriculum Development and Partnership, Education Management among other courses (Nyonator, 2017). This study focused on influence of Building Capacity of Heads of the department on KCSE performance in public secondary schools in Kericho County.
