Teachers’ perceptions on the influence of life skills education on moral behavior of students in secondary schools in Emuhaya sub county, Kenya

Abstract

The Ministry of Education has been long aware of the need to adopt Life Skills Education as a remedy to the challenges that the youth face. The prevalence of teenage pregnancy, school dropout, alcoholism, early marriages, drug misuse, HIV/AIDS and STIs among secondary school students is on the rise. In Emuhaya Sub County, there is a high prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse at 25.74%, approximately 55% of individuals have their first sexual intercourse experience before the age of 15, crime rates are at 22.69% and the dropout rate of students is 45.3%. The purpose of this study therefore was to examine teachers’ perceptions on the influence of life skills education on moral behavior of students in secondary schools in Emuhaya sub county, Kenya. Objectives of the study were to: establish the extent to which teachers training on life skills education puts emphasis on moral behavior, establish the extent to which life skills education courses have incorporated moral behavior content of students in secondary schools, determine the extent of teachers attitude on life skills education and quality of moral behavior of students in secondary schools and establish the availability and adequacy of teaching/learning resources on life skills education on moral behavior of students in secondary schools. A conceptual framework showing inter-relationships between independent variable, teachers’ perceptions and dependent variables, moral behavior based on Bandura’s Social Learning Theory was used. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The study population was 400 teachers and 1 Sub County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer. The sample sizes were 196 teachers who were targeted to participate in quantitative survey. The SCQASO was also purposively selected to participate in qualitative interviews. Structured questionnaire and a key informant interview were used to collect data. Face and content validity of questionnaire were determined by experts in the Department of Educational Psychology. The Reliability of questionnaire was determined through pilot study in 10% of the schools using Test Retest technique whereby Pearson’s r coefficient was used to check for external consistency of research instruments which was 0.70. Quantitative data from closed ended items in questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics in form of frequency counts, percentages, means and standard deviation using SPSS. Qualitative data from open ended items of the questionnaire were transcribed, analyzed and reported in emergent themes and sub themes. The findings indicated that teachers disagree on the influence of teachers training on LSE with an emphasis on moral behavior of students in secondary schools, with the overall mean of 2.44. Teachers agree on the extent to which LSE courses have incorporated moral behavior content of students in secondary schools with the overall mean of 2.51. Teachers disagree on the influence of teacher attitude on LSE and moral behavior of students in secondary schools with an overall mean of 2.19 and finally agree on the influence of availability and adequacy of teaching/learning resources on LSE on moral behavior of students in secondary schools with the overall mean of 2.57. The SCQASO concur with teachers that LSE courses contain moral behavior content and the availability and adequacy of teaching/learning resources on LSE but disagree with them on teachers training on LSE and teacher attitude in LSE. Conclusions of the study are: teachers training did not influence teaching of LSE; LSE courses have an influence on moral behavior content; teacher attitude in LSE did not influence moral behavior and the availability and adequacy of teaching/learning resources influence the implementation of LSE. Recommendations from the study are: the training of teachers in LSE should be looked into; improvements to be made on incorporation of moral behavior content in LSE courses; teachers providing LSE should have a positive attitude and improvements to be made on availability and adequacy of teaching/learning resources so as to enhance quality moral behavior.