An evaluation of the effect of teacher capacity building strategies on students’ academic performance among secondary schools in Nandi county, Kenya

Abstract

The role of teachers in building and securing the future of any society through its investment in education of its members has long been recognized in all societies of the world. Without quality teaching and learning in schools, school effectiveness is grossly affected and student performance and development is inhibited. However, low number of teachers going for in-services training and with professional skills remain major a challenge in teaching profession. It is on this basis that the study sought to evaluate the effect of teacher capacity building strategies on students’ academic performance among secondary schools in Nandi County. The study was set out to achieve the following objectives; to determine the availability of teacher training resources on academic performance in secondary Schools in Nandi County, evaluate various teachers capacity building strategies employed in secondary Schools on academic performance in Nandi County, determine the relationship between teachers capacity building strategies and academic performance in Nandi County and establish teachers’ attitudes on teachers capacity building on academic performance in secondary Schools in Nandi County . The study was informed byVygotsky theory of Zone of Actual Development. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The target population composed of all teachers of 136 public secondary schools in Nandi County. A sample of 204 teachers was randomly selected from the sampled secondary schools, 41head teachers, 41BOM and 41 PTA. Structured questionnaires were administered to sampled secondary schools teachers. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine a reliability index. Quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques which were frequencies, mean, standard deviation. Qualitative data were categorized and reported in emergent themes. Pearson correlation was used to show the relationships that exist between the variables. Findings indicated that there was linear relationship between the teacher capacity building strategies with students’ academic performance. The aforementioned findings show that teacher capacity is the most instrumental in enhancing the academic performance of learners. There is therefore need for schools to avail learning materials for training so as to equip teachers with skills and expertise to improve the academic performance of students. School should emphasize on extra training after teachers have joined the teaching profession so as to ensure that effective teachers remain effective and to also enhance teachers existing skills and competencies teachers need to upgrade their technical know-how and develop of skills since highly trained teachers are more likely to have students that exhibit better performance than students of teachers with no training. Educational institutions can find the study useful in supporting teachers for educational success and also for supporting learners’ needs.