Influence of school factors on the implementation of secondary school agriculture curriculum in arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya Case of Baringo, Makueni and Narok Counties

Abstract

Introduction and implementation of secondary school agriculture curriculum in Kenya was an endeavor in meeting the developmental needs of the surrounding communities and the country at large. In the case of Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASALs), there is need for human resource that can improve agricultural productivity of the area. Implementation of agriculture curriculum has not sufficiently integrated agricultural activities in the curriculum within the school in preparation of competent human resources. This inadequacy which is partly attributed to weak curriculum implementation strategies has resulted in under exploitation of ASALs agriculturally. This study sought to determine the influence of student, teacher, teaching resources and funding related factors on implementation of agriculture curriculum in ASAL secondary schools. The study used descriptive survey research design. The target population was 6,883 comprising agriculture teachers, agriculture students and school heads from Baringo, Makueni and Narok counties. Multi-stage sampling was used to select a sample of 88 agriculture teachers, 271 Form Three agriculture students, 29 secondary school heads and five experts in the Department of Agricultural Education and Extension. Four questionnaires and a content analysis check list were used to collect data from the four groups of respondents. A pilot study was carried out in Laikipia West Sub-county to determine the instruments' reliability. Cronbach’s alpha of 0.76 and 0.79 were obtained for the agriculture teachers and students’ questionnaires respectively. Reliability of the principals’ questionnaire was determined qualitatively by discussing the items with the supervisors. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics aided by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The inferential statistics used were Simple and Multiple Linear Regressions. Null hypotheses were tested at α = 0.05 level of significance. The study findings showed that learner related factors, teaching resources and funding positively influenced agriculture curriculum implementation in ASAL schools. The study concludes that student related factors namely learning resource availability, adequacy and frequency of use have a significant influence on agriculture curriculum implementation in ASAL secondary schools. The study recommends that the Government through the Ministry of Education, teachers of agriculture and all other stakeholders need to ensure improvement in the provision of agriculture learning resources in ASAL schools. Agriculture teacher training need to be innovative and practical oriented to enable them to translate and implement the agriculture curriculum in ASAL schools practically.