Kyalo, Rose Wandia2021-05-192021-05-192019-11http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/22188A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of' Education in the Department of (Early Childhood Studies) in the School of Education Kenyatta University, November, 2019Education sector in Kenya continues to face quality crisis with little significant changes in learning outcomes. Research has shown that acquisition of reading skills by children is affected by how they perceive their teachers. Some pupils have low reading skills not because they are not taught well, but because of unfavorable learning environment caused by poor teacher-child interactions. Studies have shown that majority of the children in Kenyan pre-primary schools cannot read work of their grade level. Therefore, this study purposed to investigate reading levels of preprimary school pupils, effect of teacher-pupil ratios, teachers' training skills and learner teacher interactions effect on reading achievements among pre-primary school children in Wote, Makueni County. The study sought to explore various aspects of teacher-child interaction and assess their association with reading achievement of children in the region. The study employed Social Interactions Theory exemplified by Vygotsky. The study employed a descriptive research design targeting 110 pre-primary schools in Wote. Simple random sampling was used to select the schools while lurposive sampling design was used to select the pre-primary teachers. The study sampled 30Yo of the target population which resulted to 33 pre-primary schools in Wote Sub-county. All the 66 pre-primary teachers in every sampled school were involved in the study. However, 10% were adopted. in selection of pre-primary children since the number was quite large for observation. Questionnaires and observation checklist were used to collect data. Data gathered in this study was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics were used to present the findings of the study using percentages and frequencies. The findings revealed that majority of the teachers also disagreed that most of the children in class one can correctly read 30 English words per minute. In this respect, the majority of teachers agreed that there was indeed a need for interventions to improve reading skills among the preprimary schools. Teacher-pupil ratio was found to be high with an increasing enrollment rate being witnessed yearly. Teachers complained that despite the increase in enrollment levels, the schools were not increasing the number of teachers. As a result, the majority of teachers (62.9%) believe that the large number of learners per class negatively affects acquisition of reading skills among the pre-primary schools. Most of the teachers had diploma while others had been trained by District Centre for Early Childhood Education with a monitory having advanced their training to undergraduate and certificate levels. According to the observation schedule, most of the teachers have undergone p l training with others having ATS3&4. It was established that training with the Tusome program had a better understanding in impacting knowledge in reading skills as compared to those who had no training. The majority of teachers highly supervise children while they are reading. High teacher guided role play was also found to be used by majority of the teachers as compared to those who use it moderately. Additionally, it was established that letting learners read in turn was a choice teachers used moderately and highly. The study recommends that teachers develop and implement a realistic plan to ensure that learners enhance their reading capabilities over time. Head teachers are recommended to increase the number of teachers for pre-primary to ensure that enrollment rates do not overly increase the teacher-learner ratio to address the issue of large classes. The study recommends that head teachers send the teachers to regular training programs to enhance their knowledge on impacting reading skillsenPre-Primary SchoolReading Skills AchievementKenyaThesis