Año: 2014 Reinicio de la obra abandonada y desarrollo del CAVE

Table 4.3: Topics of Life Skills Education reported by students to be taught in school

Topic Frequency Percent

Skills of knowing and living with one self 24 10.0 Skills of knowing and living with others 12 5.0

Skills of effective decision making 24 10.0

Creative thinking 60 25.0

Self esteem 36 15.0

Communication 24 10.0

Empathy 12 5.0

Skills of coping with stress 48 20.0

Total 240 100.0

As shown from Table 4.3, creative thinking (25%) in LSE is the major topic taught by the teachers in the secondary schools. Possibly, teachers felt that effective decision making skills would help them in all ways towards their solving problems in their social lives. Likewise, such topics as Skills of copying up with stress (20%)

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were also appreciated to be taught in schools, self-esteem (15%), personal relationship (10%), communication (10%), and Skills of effective decision making (10%). While the topics; inter-personal relationship (5%) and empathy (5%) were rarely taught in the secondary schools. Probably teachers did not consider the topics inter-personal relationship and empathy as important in the LSE syllabus though they are important. Githinji (2007), in her study, regarding perceptions of primary school teachers and pupils pertaining to the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS life skills education in Nairobi and Thika Districts, established that teachers considered it difficult to explicate and teach some topical issues such HIV/AIDS and its spread. They acknowledged that quite a number of HIV/AIDS life skills education teachers did not have adequate training and enough time to tackle cultural differences and resistance from parents. The lack of support from the administrative staff was also pointed out as a major problem that teachers face.

Bunyi (2000) asserts that aspects of values are not found in books or documents but learned through social interactions in day-to-day life, hence they should be practiced. Students need to be aware of and fully understand the fact that classes on life skills education are different from other subjects in the school curriculum. Krilik (2008) posits that social values are learned, they do not generally pass from parents to their children. Students acquire values through observational learning and imitating behaviours of their role models (Jansen, 2008). Thus, teachers ought to be role-models of good behavior for their students to develop desired values, which they are taught in LSE.

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Table 4.4: Duration of Training for Teachers in LSE

Duration Frequency Percent

1-2 weeks 16 66.7

1 month and more 8 33.3

Total 24 100.0

From the above Table, the results indicate that majority (66.7%) of teachers LSE in secondary schools were trained for 1-2 weeks which was considered adequate for training. However, only 33.3% of teachers were trained for more than 1 month. This implies that training was not adequate enough to ensure teachers had the necessary skills and knowledge of implementing LSE in their distinct schools. Considering that teachers are a fundamental resource in the teaching and learning process, it is critical that their training and utilization be considered and addressed systematically. The existing government programmes for teacher education endeavours at providing qualified teachers thus chief to continuity of the provision of quality education. The existing teacher training programmes facilitate he production of teachers with qualifications to teach pre-primary, primary, secondary, special, vocational and technical education. The objectives of teacher education programmes endeavour to develop communication skills, professional attitudes and values that equip teachers with the knowledge and capacity to identify and develop the educational needs of a child (Republic of Kenya/UNESCO, 2012; Republic of Kenya, 2013).

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Table 4.5: Main challenges on implementation of LSE as reported by students

Challenge Frequency Percent

Lack of committed teachers 96 33.33

Lack of materials and resources 52 18.06

Lack of interest 45 15.63

Lack of cooperation 75 24.31

Ignorance 22 7.64

The above results (Table 4.5) indicate that majority (33.33%) of teachers are not committed to teach LSE. This might be possible due to poor management of school which fails to promote good student-teacher relationship yet students need to learn through observing and imitating their teachers‟ behaviors (Jansen, 2008). Other challenges reported include lack of cooperation (24.31%), lack of materials and resources (18.06%), Lack of interest (15.63%), and Ignorance (7.64%). This implies that even though many topics related to LSE were taught in the schools, majority of them had not fully implemented LSE.

The successful making an implementation of a curriculum depends on the teacher‟s attitude towards work. In this study teacher‟s positive attitude means „teacher‟s beliefs and interest towards teaching given the conditions of his or her work (Jansen, 2002). The feeling that a teacher has about his or her work shapes his / her ability in implementing a curriculum policy. Kadzamira (2006), a study notes that low salaries and coupled with other poor working conditions in Malawi cause widespread teacher discontent so teaching is regarded as “employment of last resort.” Teachers‟ discontent with their career may affect the implementation of any curriculum including life skills education.

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Table 4.6: Main challenges on implementation of LSE as reported by teachers

Challenge Frequency Percent

Lack of trained teachers in LSE 34 70.83

Lack of materials and resources 26 54.17

Bad attitudes 13 27.08

Poor time allocation 47 97.92

N= 48

The results in the Figure 4.6 above indicate that adequate time allocation and trained teachers were the major problems faced by the teachers in the process of teaching Life Skills Education. These were represented by 97.97% and 70.83% respectively. This implies, most teachers did not treat life skills as an examinable subject and had no schedule for LSE in their lessons. Fewer teachers were trained since they did not have interest in LSE.

Results from the interview scheduled indicate that majority of principals 14 (58.33%) indicated that main factors hindering successful teaching of LSE was lack of trained teachers in LSE. Other challenges include inadequate materials like books, magazines, news papers and audio visual material. Poor planning based on the economical approaches. Majority of the principals added that learners could not identify own problems through learning LSE. Even though some could identify, majority did not discuss solutions, plan and carry out effective action propramme. This implies that there were no trained teachers to guide them.

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The above results reveal that LSE has not been effectively implemented in majority of secondary schools in Koibatek Sub-County even though it is perceived to have a greater influence on academic performance. This indicates that most teachers only concentrated on examinable subjects other than LSE. The findings agreed with the previous findings of Abobo (2012) who noted that teachers had negative attitude while students had positive attitude towards teaching of Life Skills Education. The findings were also consistent with the findings of Githinji (2011), who noted that while students highly valued some of the life skills such as goal setting, communication, being assertive and negotiation skills, there were others that they considered less important such as consumer awareness and self awareness (Abobo & Orodho 2014).