Authors: Benson Tonui and Peter Njenga
Mount Kenya University, Kenya
Email: bensn92@gmail.com
Abstract
The early years of life are the best opportunity to lay the foundations for a child’s future. By getting it right in early childhood, the society plants the seeds for tomorrow’s active pupil, productive, skilled worker, confident and loving parent.This article sought to explain the performance gap between children with preschool education and those without a case of Mauche Division, Njoro Sub-County, Nakuru County, Kenya.The study adopted Ex-post facto research design and was based on Ecological Systems Theory by Urie Brofenbrenner and the cognitive development theory by Jean Piaget. It used mixed approach in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed. The study sample size included 72 pupils who were randomly sampled, 18 teachers and 6 head teachers purposively sampled. Pupils’ termly divisional exams results record in each of the schools were used as the dependent variable. The results for each sampled pupil in English, Mathematics and Science were analyzed for the entire lower primary school period spanning three years. Questionnaires, mark lists and interview schedules were also used to gather the required information from the teachers. Data collected for this study was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0.Quantitative data was analyzed by calculating the means for each subject per term, per year and also by calculating the totals for the entire lower primary cycle. The information was then presented using tables and figures. It is envisaged that the results of this study may be useful to educational policy makers, the school management and preschool teachers in planning and making decisions to strengthen preschool education. Research findings revealed that pupils with preschool education significantly out-performed their counterparts without preschool education in all the three subjects studied and in all the terms. The study therefore concluded that preschool education equips children with certain skills and competences that seemingly make learning easier and faster. The researcher recommends that the Government of Kenya should encourage all parents to send their children to preschools for this seemingly crucial early exposure to formative experiences.
Keywords: Academic performance, continuous assessment test, early childhood education, performance evaluation, preschool education, preschool experience.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Suggested Citation
Tonui, B., & Njenga, B. (2020). Explaining the performance gap between children with preschool education and those without: a case of mauche division, nakuru county, kenya. African Research Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 7(2), 95-108. Available online at http://arjess.org/education-research/explaining-the-performance-gap-between-children-with-preschool-education-and-those-without-a-case-of-mauche-division-nakuru-county-kenya.pdf
