Effects of teachers' age in K.C.P.E and co-curriculum performance in public primary schools in Tigania central division, Kenya.

Abstract

Teachers are of different ages raging from 20 years up to 60 years. These teachers are trained and are able to access the pupils so as to set achievable targets. Teachers of different age were used by the researcher by to investigate the effects of teacher's age on Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E) and Co-curricular Activities performance. The researcher intended to establish which age bracket(s) perform(s) better than others in relation to students' performance which largely constitute the realization of the set targets both in and outside the class. There are perceptions that teachers' performance differ across the age brackets. The effects of teachers' age on performance in categories between 20 to 60 years were investigated in this research project. The government of Kenya has set up many education commissions but little has been captured about age and performance. There are perceptions among teachers, employers and curriculum implementers, that certain teachers of certain age brackets are not able to handle some education functions. The purpose of the study was to investigate, the effects of teachers' age on their performance in public primary school in Tigania East District. The conceptual framework of the study was based on the independent variables of academic, co-curricular activities and duties. The dependent variable was performance. The intervening variables were pupils discipline, teaching-learning environment and social-political factors. It was assumed that teachers are trained for at least two years before joining teaching profession. The target population was 322 teachers in the division. Selection was done using stratified random sampling method. The research design was survey approach using EX-post-facto design. The data was collected using questionnaires for teachers and interview schedules for the head teachers and Zonal Education Officers. The collected data was organized and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The appraisal performance method that was used was graphic rating scale in judgmental approach combined with result oriented approaches. The findings of this study demonstrated that the best performing age bracket of teachers in academics is that of 20-30 years while in co-curricular activities, age bracket 31-40 years was found to be the best. Generally, there is a need to provide a conducive working environment for teachers for instance ensuring that teachers are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. The researcher recommends that in an endeavor to handle this area exhaustively; there is a need for a research study on the reasons behind the minimal performance by the teachers of age bracket 41-50 years.