Contributions of quality assurance and standards to curriculum implementation in primary schools of Baringo District, Baringo county, Kenya

Abstract

The core function of the directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards is ensuring Quality education. This entails monitoring of curriculum implementation in schools. The members of staff of the directorate are expected to visit schools regularly, conduct seminars and In-service courses for teachers, and promote advisory services among other activities. Reports have indicated that Quality Assurance and Standards in Kenya is a thorny issue. Even with the efforts made for instance (in training, appointing qualified personnel and providing necessary materials) in strengthening the department, it is still wanting. The main objective of the study was to investigate the contributions of Quality Assurance and Standards Officer to curriculum implementation in primary schools in Baringo District, Kenya. The research adopted a descriptive research design. Simple random sampling was used to sample 103 teachers from primary schools in the District. Systematic random sampling was used to select 34 primary schools from 114 schools in the District. Therefore, the sample size included 34 schools, 34 head teachers and 103 teachers from the District. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the head teachers and teachers. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study found that QASOs contribute to effective curriculum implementation. They assisted greatly in organizing workshops on teaching methods, giving advice and ideas on ways of implementing the curriculum, updating teachers on changes in the curriculum and in preparation of schemes of work and checked childrens' work. The study also found that there was a good relationship between teachers and QASOs. The study concluded that the involvement of QASOs in educational matters benefited teachers in development of work plans, lesson plans and records of work, maintaining quality instruction, improving actual instruction and developing instructional materials. The study recommended that there was need to address the issue of Insufficient materials and rare visits by QASOs by employing more Officers, that the government should employ other officers to oversee the work of QASOs, the officers should regularly monitor schools to fmd out whether curriculum activities were being implemented as planned and whether they were producing desired results, that the ministry of Education through directorate of Quality Assurance and standards should establish a vetting system for those being in-serviced to ascertain their correctiveness and that there was need for sensitization of community members for increased participation in matters affecting curriculum implementation, through organized workshops.