Influence of curriculum support officers’ supervisory role on management of teaching and learning in public primary schools in Tigania West Sub County, Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

The Kenya government is committed in providing and maintaining quality and standards in basic education through quality assurance department. However, the prevalence of low academic achievement, low teachers’ self-efficacy in implementation of competence based curriculum, and low school safety standards as found in some schools in Tigania West Sub County has cast aspersions on the effectiveness of the Curriculum Support Officers (CSOs) supervisory role. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of curriculum support officers’ supervisory role on management of teaching and learning among primary schools in Tigania West Sub County. The study objectives were to determine the influence of CSOs supervisory role on curriculum implementation, teachers’ resource management and maintenance of schools’ safety standards in public primary schools in Tigania West Sub County. The study was based on the Effective Schools Theory and adopted crosssectional survey research design. The study target population was 84 head teachers, 910 teachers and three CSOs out of which 25 head teachers, 910 teachers and three CSOs were sampled. The data collection instruments consisted of the teachers’ questionnaire, the head teachers’ interview schedule and the CSOs interview schedule. Reliability of the teachers’ questionnaire was ascertained through computation of Cronbach alpha coefficient while the content validity of the research instruments was determined through scrutiny by the researcher’s’ two supervisors. Data was analyzed with the aid of SPSS version 22 software. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics consisted of frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations and charts while inferential statistics comprised of simple linear regression. Qualitative data was put into broad themes for analysis and interpretation. However, some qualitative data was used verbatim to maintain the power of the participants’ spoken words. The study found out that CSOs supervisory role performance accounted for 53.2%, 31.1% and 46.2% of variance in teachers’ level of curriculum implementation, teachers’ management, and the school safety standards respectively. The study findings of what teachers have accomplished in curriculum implementation, professional development and maintenance of schools’ safety standards, may give insight to education stakeholders on the influence of CSO supervisory role on teachers and the entire school fraternity. The established level of influence will inform MOE and TSC policy changes concerning CSO and QASO supervisory approaches and teachers’ appraisal.