Abstract:
In Kenya, the County governments, through the county education boards are tasked
with the responsibility of overseeing the operation and management of Pre-primary
education programs. Despite the growing importance of Early Childhood Education
programme, there is lack of schemes of service for ECDE teachers, low and irregular
remuneration of pre-school teachers thus adversely affecting the morale of these
teachers. Teacher qualification is instrumental for quality learning, not only in
pre-primary education but also in other levels. The study sought to examine the level
of expertise of the staff implementing the policy on the management of public ECDE
centers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County. This study adopted a descriptive survey research
design and anchored on systems theory. The target population for this study
comprised ECDE officials, all the head-teachers and teachers in all the public ECDE’s
in Elgeyo-Marakwet County. The study used stratified sampling to stratify Elgeyo- Marakwet County into sub-counties that form 155 ECDE schools from Keiyo North, 144 ECDE schools from Keiyo south, 118 ECDE schools from Marakwet East and
156 ECDE schools from Marakwet West. Simple random sampling was used to select
the respondents for the study from the strata. Thus, 344 ECDE teachers and 172 head
teachers participated in the study. The 5 ECDE officials were purposely included in
the study sample. Data collection was done using a combination of sets of
questionnaire, interview guides and checklists. Data was analysed using descriptive
and inferential statistics. Chi-square test was used to find the relationship between the
variables investigated. Data was presented using tables. The study established that
majority of ECDE teachers had attained diploma qualification with a few who had
attained master’s degree. Majority (67.4%) of the respondents said that there was no
implementation policy on level of expertise in the policy. Similarly, the study
established that there existed a relationship between the level of expertise of the staff
in implementing policies and the management of public ECDE centers in
Elgeyo-Marakwet County government(χ2=762.066, df=45 and sig=0.001). The study
recommends on the need for individual and collective efforts on the part of teachers to
keep themselves abreast of any new development regarding pedagogy and any
relevant aspects of teaching and learning so as to remain relevant in their career. This
can be done by way of professional development through in servicing.
