The Effects of Teaching and Learning Methods on Performance of Learners in Public and Private ECDE Centres in Kenya

Abstract

The Kenya 2010 Constitution placed management and financing of Early Years' Education (EYE) under custody of county governments. Management and efficiency of early childhood education is therefore expected to be more effective than it was before 2010. Public early education centres suffered quality because of budgetary constraints, this is expected to have changed over the period that ECDE has been devolved. There is need for research evidence on the quality of ECDE in the context of county government management. This study emerges from the theoretical perspective that increased inputs should lead to increased outputs. The Education Production Function (EPF) theory was employed. Has increased expenditure after devolution and budgeting from close changed the quality of ECDE in counties? The purpose of this comparative study was to identify, compare and discuss effect of teaching and learning methods on performance of learners in public and private ECDE centres after one term of instruction and how this factor interact to influence, learning and achievement in public and private ECDE centres in the context of increased funding to public sectors schools by county government. The study site selected for this study was Kericho County. The population of interest in this study was all the 750 public ECDE centres with 1066 teachers and 18405 pupils, and all the 258 private ECDE centres comprising of 628 teachers and 4180 pupils in Kericho County. Sampling was done through stratified, purposive and simple random sampling methods. The sample size was determined by adopting the Krejcie and Morgan formula. Tools for data collection included questionnaires, observation schedules and interview guides. Data collected was bot qualitative and quantitative. Analysis involved qualitative techniques and quantitative techniques. The quantitative techniques involved descriptive and inferential statistics in order to answer the questions posed for study. The results obtained showed that despite the increased funding to public ECDE centres, learners in private ECDE centres had high academic achievement. The findings were used to develop a model for county government to establish uniform qualification of ECDE staff, common methodology to improve teaching and learning facilities hence universal instructions leading to improved achievement among pre-primary school learners.