ASSESSMENT OF PARENT’S ENGAGEMENT IN IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPETENCY-BASED CURRICULUM IN PRIVATE PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN THARAKA SOUTH SUB-COUNTY OF THARAKA-NITHI COUNTY, NITHI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Education is a shared responsibility and all stakeholders need to understand and appreciate what is being done and what is required of them to make meaningful contributions to the process. Because the Competency-Based Curriculum shifted its focus from teaching-centric to collaborative-centered, parents are important stakeholders for its successful implementation. Therefore, empowering and engaging a parent in the learning process is essential to the learner’s growth and development. The study examined parents’ engagement in CBC implementation. This study specifically aimed to determine parents’ engagement in the implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum in private primary schools in Tharaka South Sub-County of Tharaka-Nithi County. To get this, the researcher went to private primary schools in Tharaka South Sub County to observe how parents are embracing CBC and randomly selected some parents for interviews, teachers, and head teachers to fill out questionnaires. The study adopted a descriptive survey design where the targeted population was drawn from the 30 private schools in the sub-county. The study targeted 528 respondents. 66 respondents were sampled: 42 parents, 18 teachers and 6 head teachers. Simple random sampling was then used to select the participant. The study conducted a pretest study in 3 private primary schools for the purpose of validating the research instruments. Data was collected using questionnaires for head teachers and teachers and interview schedules for parents. The validity of the research instruments was determined through expert judgment whereas the reliability of the questionnaires was determined through a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.7982 was obtained. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically whereas quantitative data was summarized using percentages, mean, standard deviation and frequencies were used. This was facilitated by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21. The study established a significant relationship between the parent’s literacy and the implementation of CBC with a significance value of p=0.000<0.05. The study concluded that the implementation of CBC is greatly challenged by a lack of sensitization on the implementation of the CBC and perceived CBC as expensive, demanding and time-consuming. Thus, recommended that the private schools get more time with their parents to sensitize them on the CBC implementation and get to know their role in the academic performance of their children and also try to change their perception of CBC as expensive, demanding and time-consuming.

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