Thesis:

Educational management and curriculum methods Used by public primary school teachers in teaching English on pupils’ performance in Turkana Central Sub-county, Kenya

Education plays a significant role in spheres like politics, economic and social realms of development. Performance of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education candidates was therefore seen as a product of socio-economic, psychological and environmental factors among other explaining why there is a decline in English as a subject in Turkana Central Sub-County. The purpose of the study was to assess effectiveness of educational management and curriculum methods used by public primary school teachers in teaching English on pupils’ performance in Turkana Central Sub-County, Turkana County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were: to identify educational management and curriculum methods used by Primary School teachers in teaching English in Turkana Central Sub-County-Turkana County, Kenya; to assess the educational management and curriculum methods used by public primary school teachers in teaching English in Turkana Central Sub-County; to determine the challenges faced by primary school teachers while using educational management and curriculum methods in teaching English in Turkana Central Sub-County; to find out the strategies to be used to improve the educational management and curriculum methods in English by primary school teachers in teaching English in Turkana Central Sub-County. The study was to employ the Survey and phenomenological research designs for purposes of triangulating the information collected. The population of the study was 1889 with the sample size of 945 and the calculation of each respondent was done differently by the researcher. The researcher used the research instruments: Questionnaire schedule, key informant interview guide, English performance checklist for over six years (2007- 2012) and Focus Group Discussion guide. The study employed mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative); Multi-stage sampling, a stratified sampling and purposive sampling techniques to select the sample. The collected data were analyzed both qualitatively (descriptive statistics) for thematic areas and quantitatively (inferential statistics) using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS version 16) that deals with numerically collected data that will be presented in frequencies and percentages and p value (Fisher Test) was also used. Lecture methods was seen as the list effective methods while the rest discussion, demonstration and question and answer approach was seen as most used, relevant and effective. There was no significant association between use of methods and overall average school performance. Other strategies should be indentified to improve school performance. The study found that all the respondents reported that the instructional methods of teaching English were relevant, useful and appropriate. All but lecture method was unpopular in every setting of the study respondents. The study recommended that in terms of legal policies and procedures, the study recommended that the ministry of education, science and technology should provide guidelines of which English instruction methods can be used at what point in the schools’ curriculum. It was recommended that teachers who teach English should expose themselves to other variety of instructional methods of teaching-learning English in the classroom; adhere to active English panel meetings besides using popular materials the like of teaching-learning aids in their lessons.