RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILD FRIENDLY SCHOOL INITIATIVES AND PUPILS’ EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES IN PUBLIC PRE-PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN MOMBASA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

In 2002 the Government of Kenya in partnership with United Nations Children’s Fund adopted the implementation of the Child Friendly School Initiative (CFSI). The child friendly school initiative is an appropriate teaching and learning environment that enables learners to optimally achieve the goals and aims of education. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between child friendly school initiatives and pupils’ educational outcomes in public pre-primary schools in Mombasa County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: determine the relationship between physical resources and pupils’ educational outcomes, examine the relationship between the level of teacher training and pupils’ educational outcomes, assess the relationship between school feeding programme and pupils’ educational outcomes, and establish the relationship between parental involvement and pupils’ educational outcomes in Mombasa County, Kenya. The study was premised on Bronfenbrenner’s Theory of human development. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study had a population of 492 that included 97 head teachers, 388 teachers and 7 Early Childhood Development Education Sub County supervisors from which a sample size of 201 participants was picked that included; 78 head teachers, 116 teachers and 7 Sub County Early Childhood Education supervisors. The study embraced the stratified sampling technique, purposive sampling technique, and simple random sampling technique to select the sample. The study employed a questionnaire, interview schedule, and an observation checklist to solicit information for the study. A pilot study was carried out in two public pre-primary schools and on one Sub County ECDE supervisor from Kilifi County to establish the reliability and validity of the instruments. Content and face validity was ensured through expert review of the tools by the study supervisors, colleagues and a panel of experts. Test-retest technique was used to measure the instruments’ reliability. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics; frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviations, and findings presented in tables using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). T-tests and Pearson correlation coefficient tests were used to analyze the relationship between child friendly school initiatives and pupils’ educational outcomes. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically in narrative and verbatim form to corroborate the quantitative findings. The major findings of this study were that all the four dimensions of school child friendly school initiatives; physical resources, school feeding programmes, teacher training and parental participation influence public pre-primary pupils’ educational outcomes. The study recommends that the government and education stake-holders provide adequate teaching and learning resources, train and motivate teachers to apply friendly approaches in school and synergize initiatives through parental engagement and policy adaptation. The researcher suggests that apart from Mombasa County, similar research studies should be conducted in other Counties