Perceptions of teachers towards the integration of mitigation strategy topics on climate change into secondary school agriculture syllabus in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Secondary school agriculture syllabus was introduced in Kenya to equip learners with knowledge on the basic principles of farming. Farming provides; food for the people, employment, market for industrial goods and raw materials for industries among others. In order to meet the needs of the society, agriculture syllabus like any other requires frequent reviews. Curriculum review is an ongoing process that seeks to adjust education to address the current, and or anticipated societal needs. In the wake of the last quarter of the 20th Century, climate change became the single most challenge to the Worlds agriculture sector, the developing countries being the most vulnerable. To tackle the phenomena, each country ought to find appropriate solutions to secure its own agricultural production. In Kenya, lack of knowledge on climate change adaptations and mitigations strategies affects the agriculture syllabus in meeting its objectives, which in turn translates to a shortfall in response to the farmers needs. The problem that the study sought to investigate therefore is lack of empirical data on the perceptions of teachers towards integration of mitigation strategy topics on climate change into secondary school agriculture syllabus. The purpose of the study, therefore, was to investigate the perceptions of teachers towards the integration of mitigation strategy topics on climate change into the secondary school agriculture syllabus. The design of the study was descriptive survey research design. The target population was three hundred and fifty (350) agriculture teachers in public secondary schools in Machakos County. A sample of a hundred (100) agriculture teachers was selected through proportionate stratified random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The objectives of the study were analyzed using frequencies and percentages. The major findings of the study indicated that, an overwhelming majority of the respondents supported the suggestion to integrate relevant climate change and variability topics into secondary school agriculture syllabus. The major conclusions of the study were that, most agriculture teachers endorsed the suggestion to integrate climate mitigations strategy topics into agriculture syllabus authenticating the validity and reliability of the usual agriculture instructional resources and methodologies to facilitate them. The study therefore, recommends that, the Ministry of Education and teacher training institutions ought to improve the agriculture teachers‟ capacity to plan and implement the teaching of agriculture to respond to the changing climate. This may be done through provision of in-service training and workshops for the serving teachers‟ by inculcating climate change mitigation strategies into the agriculture syllabus as projected.