An assessment of the problems facing teaching And learning of history in secondary schools in Ojola zone, Kisumu county

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the problems facing the teaching and learning of history in Ojola zone high schools Kisumu County. There are several challenges associated with teaching and learning of history as a subject in secondary schools in Kenya due to the fact that there are few professional teachers especially in the rural areas. It is clear that this teachers and students face these problems silently. This design allowed the researcher to gather data. The study was cross sectional, combining both qualitative and quantitative tools and method of data collection and analysis. Data collection involved administration of structured questions to the respondents. The study adopted a survey design because the researcher was concerned with the information obtained from respondents. The target population involved 10 public secondary schools that had a population of 1050 students and 28 teachers. The researcher sampled five major zonal secondary schools namely Bishop Okoth Girls, Ongalo mixed, Osiri mixed, Usare mixed and Obambo mixed through random sampling after identifying the target population. The researcher then collected the total number of students from the sampled schools. A sample size of 210 respondents was selected for the study. The sample size included both male and female teachers and students in ojola zone schools. A random sampling method was used to arrive at 10 teachers and 200 students from the 5 sampled schools whereby 2 teachers and forty students were selected from each school. The research instrument used in the survey was the questionnaire which was used as the main instrument of data collection. The first set of questions was for the teachers while the second set was for the learners respectively. They had both open and closed ended questions. These set of questions were used by the researcher to get information on the attitude of the learners towards history, challenges both teachers and learners face towards history and the strategies put in place in handling history as a subject. The self administered questions were distributed by the researcher personally to the respondents who included the teachers and learners. Analysis of data was done both electronically and manually and presented in form of tables and charts for better understanding, frequencies and percentages were used to express opinion of the respondents. The research work identified that students’ poor performance in history is caused by a variety of factors some of which include students’ negative attitude towards history, lack of qualified and properly trained teachers. From the study it was clearly seen that students poor performance in history in secondary schools n ojola zone Kisumu county and Kenya as a whole lies squarely on the teachers, students, parents and other stake holders in Kenyan education system. The recommendations 2highlighted were that the government should provide enough learning facilities, teachers should create conducive atmosphere for learning history as a subject. Students and teachers must be proficient enough with the language of instruction. More history teachers should also be employed by the government; these teachers should be competent enough and trained to handle history.