A study of problems encountered by tutors of Kiswahili with regard to preparation and training of Kiswahili teacher trainees in selected primary teacher training colleges

Abstract

This research was conducted in primary teachers training colleges within Nairobi and Central province. The purpose of the study was to survey the problems faced by college tutors in their major tasks of preparing and training teacher trainees in the colleges. The study involved describing teaching materials such as textbooks, teacher's guides, tape/cassettes etc, used by both tutors and teachers trainees. It also involved identifying and describing instructional methods and procedures taught to teacher trainees; methods and procedures taught to teacher trainees; methods of evaluation used during training; extent to which examinations exert influence on teaching and learning and the attitudes of tutors and teacher trainees towards teaching and learning of Kiswahili.

Data was collected by using two different questionnaires in which each selected subject completed. A total of nine (9) college tutors and twenty nine (29) second year teacher trainees were selected from three primary teachers training colleges. The three colleges had a total of ten (10) tutors, about one thousand two hundred (1200) second year teacher trainees. The sample of tutors and teacher trainees revealed that tutors prepared their trainees well during the training. The data collected revealed that tutors have no teacher's guides and textbooks supplied by the colleges were insufficient. The findings also revealed that most tutors used tests for continuous assessment of their trainees and rarely used diagnostic tests to find out the learner's problems. Most of the tests used in colleges were either essays of filling in blanks. Writing sentences were classified as essays. It was revealed that most of the tutors did not teach topics that did not appear in examinations. Muhtasari, which appear in the syllabus, was never taught and was never examined.