Teachers’ Perceptions on the Relationship Between Teachers’ Working Conditions and Pupils’ Reading Ability in Pre-Primary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

One of the most important factors in realizing reading as a subject in pre-primary schools is teacher working conditions. Literature suggests that working conditions are crucial in teaching of reading and pupils’ reading ability. However, empirical studies that have examined pupils’ reading ability have not focused on the relationship between teacher working conditions and reading ability. Further, the few empirical studies that have examined the relationships have been conducted in primary and secondary schools. Whereas most pre-primary school teachers in Kenya work under unfavourable conditions, past studies have not examined the relationship between working conditions and reading ability of pre-primary school pupils in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to determine the relationship between teacher workload and pupils’ reading ability, establish the relationship between school leadership and pupils’ reading ability, find out the relationship between school infrastructure and pupils’ reading ability and determine the relationship between classroom organization and pupils’ reading ability. The study was based on Herzberg’s two factor theory. The study adopted a correlational research design. The target population for the study was 79 head teachers and 79 pre-primary 2 class teachers in public schools in Rongai Sub-County Nakuru. A stratified sample of pre-primary schools in the four zones in Rongai Sub-county was used for the study. The sample size comprised of 66 head teachers and 66 pre-primary 2 teachers. The questionnaires were filled by the head teachers and pre-primary school teachers. A pilot study was done consisting of four schools which did not participate in the actual study. Data was summarized using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages, pie-charts, means and standard deviations. To test the hypotheses, Pearson’s Product-moment correlation coefficient was used. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between teacher workload and pupils’ reading ability, school leadership and pupils’ reading ability, school infrastructure and pupils’ reading ability and classroom organisation and pupils’ reading ability. The study concluded that heavy teacher workload, poor school leadership, poor school infrastructure and poor classroom organization affects the reading ability of pre-primary school pupils. The researcher recommended that to improve reading ability, school managements should ensure pre-primary school classes are of reasonable sizes so that teachers do not have a heavy workload, have effective school leadership, improve school infrastructure and classroom organization. The study recommends areas of further.