RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CURRICULUM CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND TRANSITION OF PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS WITH DISABILITIES TO SECONDARY SCHOOL IN KENYA

Access to quality education and transition from one level to another has been a major focus of the Kenya Government to speed up individual and national development. While the rate of learners transiting from primary to secondary school has been on an upward trend, transition of learners with disabilities has remained low over the years. The Government has established several legal initiatives and mobilized resources to address this challenge. Most recent of these initiatives is introduction of special needs education policy framework of 2009 which among other provisions emphasized review and adaptation of curriculum to suit the disability limitations of learners. Despite the legal mitigations and resource mobilization by the Government, transition to secondary school for learners with disabilities has remained below 30% compared to the typical peers whose transition has been increasing to above 92% currently. This study sought to address the gap by determining the relationship between curriculum content management and transition to secondary school for public primary school learners with disabilities in Kenya. The research employed descriptive research design and a sample of 340 respondents to represent a population of 3210 subjects. The data obtained in the study was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation with the aid of a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. Findings to the study revealed that curriculum content management had significant impact on transition to secondary school for public primary school learners with disabilities. Special needs education teachers were expected to implement the mainstream primary school curriculum in the special needs classrooms. The lessons time allowed by the Ministry of education was too short to implement the planned lesson content on learners with learning disabilities. The time allocated for exams and language used was unsuitable to the learners. As a result, the learners’ outcomes and transition to secondary school was inhibited. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the Ministry of Education through the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development should establish a curriculum that is adaptable to the disabled learners which will enhance effective planning of teaching-learning activities and addressing learning needs of every disabled learner by the teacher.  Article visualizations

An analysis of social costs of secondary education in Kenya after the introduction of subsidised secondary education in 2008

The purpose of the study was to evaluate social cost of educating day and a boarding student in secondary schools in Kenya after the introduction of free day secondary education in Kenya by the government in January 2008. After the introduction there were 1.2 million additional students enrolled in the secondary education sector. Saturated and systematic random samplings were used in the study. The sample size was 243 respondents that were distributed as follows; five head teachers, 43 form four teachers, 93 day students and 103 boarding students. The study found out that the direct social cost of educating a boarding and a day student was Ksh 74,140 and Ksh 68,327 respectively. 90.1% of direct social cost was utilised in the payment of teachers' salaries. The government subsidy has reduced direct private cost to households by 40.22% for day students and 28.23% for boarders, but the direct social cost to the Kenyan taxpayers has increased by 28.23%.boarding school students; secondary schools; day students; secondary education; social cost of education; private cost of education; free day sachool education; FDSE; Kenya; private costs; cost to taxpayers.

Poverty Level and Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (Kcpe) Performance in Kenya

Abstract This study was meant to evaluate how poverty levels in 47 counties in Kenya affect the performance of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations and how this could affect the newly elected county governors under the new Kenyan constitution. It was also meant to analyse the disparity of the performance in KCPE within the 47 counties to Kenya. The research design used in the study was correlation research design. The population was 811,930 students whose results were released on January 28 th 2013. Data was obtained from Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) and Ministry of Planning. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as simple tabulation, means and percentage. Inferential statistics used were Pearson Correlation, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Linear Regression Analysis. The major findings was that Turkana county which is the poorest and was ranked number 27 in KCPE by KNEC, will rank 6 th if poverty level was taken into consideration. The top county in KCPE (Kirinyaga) will be ranked 19 th . The richest county (Kajiiado) was ranked 13 th and it will end up ranked 38 if poverty was considered. From Correlation and Regression Analysis, increase in poverty level decreased performance in examination. For the counties to improve their performance, the county government should focus on improving the quality of the lowest performing schools in order to improve the performance of their counties