Education has remained the most crucial contributor to social, political and economic development of any nation. The contribution of education to development has been re-iterated by many scholars. Todaro (2003) asserted that a country which is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of her people and utilize them effectively in national economy will be unable to develop anything else. The importance of secondary education in stimulating social economic development was emphasized by Psacharopolous and Woodhall, (1985) and Ayot and Briggs, (1992) who argued that enlightened labour force is crucial to economic development. This realization has created a high demand for secondary education especially in developing countries. For example it is projected that enrollment in Kenya’s secondary school is to grow by 115% from 0.9 million students in 2004 to 2.7 million by 2015 (KIPPRA, 2006). Kenya’s visionary plan of being industrialized by the year 2030 demands that a majority of the youth should be able to access secondary education as a component of basic education. However, the increasing demand comes at a time of rising diminishing resources due to poor economic growth and rising poverty levels among the household.
Amongst all educational personnel it is teachers who arguably play the central role of giving purpose to the learners and enthuse in them the drive to work hard so as to succeed in in life. By virtue of this vital function, number of teachers and their qualifications are key determinants of student’s test scores, completion rates, enrollment rates, repetition and dropout rates as indicators of quality of education. The study envisioned to examine the influence of teacher staffing levels on quality of education in public day secondary schools in Embu County, Kenya. The study used correlational research design and targeted 192 principals, 1743 teachers and 35124 students from all the 192 public secondary schools in Embu County. Schools were stratified into the five Sub-Counties of Embu County. Public day secondary schools were purposefully sampled followed by another purposeful sampling of form four students. The study used a sample of 516 individuals comprising of 35 school principals, 97 teachers and 384 students. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedule and an observation checklist. The SPSS software was used to aid in data analysis. The study revealed that teacher staffing levels had strong correlation with quality of education. Chi-square statistics computed at α=0.05 established a significant relationship between number of teachers and quality of education. The findings of the study revealed that public day secondary schools were understaffed pursuant to the curriculum based establishment. The study recommended that the government through the teacher service commission should employ more teachers to alleviate the shortage of teachers
Mainstreaming of Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) in primary schools has been a policy in the Kenyan educational system. The philosophy is to induct the learner at this level into primary school environment. However, this is not without challenges. The children at this level of ECDE have not developed enough to independently function. This has led to the need to examine how they are coping. It is with this background that the researcher examined the influence of the provision of physical facilities on participation in ECDE in public primary schools in Embu County, Kenya. A total of forty-two ECDE teachers took part in the study. The main tool for data collection was a questionnaire, observation schedule, and document analysis. Quantitative method was used to analyse data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings from the study indicated that physical facilities influenced children's participation in ECD classes. This paper focuses on proposing the need for relevant stakeholders in education to invest in physical facilities so as to increase participation in early childhood development and education.
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