THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AVAILABILITY OF INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES AND AGRICULTURE CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BURET SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Provision and use of agriculture instructional resources is essential in the implementation of agriculture curriculum. Kenya’s secondary school agriculture curriculum emphasizes acquisition of values, attitude, and practical skills in learning of the subject in schools. Adequate exposure of learners to practical related agriculture activities enhances learner’s acquisition of information and skills which translates to good performances in the subject. Regardless of the potential in practical based agriculture, the emerging trends in the learning of agriculture reveal more of theoretical learning approaches than practical. This puts into doubt the accessibility of instructional resources for agriculture curriculum implementation in secondary schools. The intention of this study was to determine the relationship between instructional resources and the implementation of secondary school agriculture syllabus in Buret Sub-County, Kericho County. The study was anchored on Edgar Dale’s cone of experience theoretical framework. It used descriptive survey research design; the target populations were the agriculture students, all principals, and all agriculture teachers in public secondary schools in Buret sub-county. The accessible populations were form three agriculture students, the principals, agriculture teachers. Stratified proportionate sampling technique and simple random sampling was used to get a sample size of 366 participants. The sample size comprised of 328 agriculture students from form three, 19 agriculture teachers and the 19 school principals in the chosen schools. Survey was used to collect information using questionnaires. The instruments were proved by research experts from the department of agricultural education and extension in the faculty of education and community studies of Egerton University. Cronch Bach’s alpha (coefficient) was used in estimating the consistency of the instruments. Consistency of the coefficients estimated to be 0.853 and 0.736 which are higher than the threshold of 0.7 hence was accepted for the study. Both quantitative and qualitative information were collected. Computer software, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25) was used to analyze the data collected. Qualitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and spearman correlation for quantitative data. The findings of the study may help advance the implementation of agriculture subject in secondary schools; may also inform the school administration, the teacher’s service commission, and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development on the necessity of providing the appropriate instructional resources for the implementation of agriculture subject in secondary schools.