Parental Volunteering Activities and Pre-Primary School Learners’ Acquisition of CBC Core Competencies in Kisii County

Abstract

This paper presents findings of a study that sought to analyse how parental volunteering activities relates to pre-primary school learners’ acquisition of CBC’s core competencies in pre-primary institutions. Pre-primary school education forms a solid foundation for the acquisition of core competencies in other subsequent levels of schooling. Studies conducted worldwide have found that the majority of learners are not able to satisfactorily accomplish competencies Based Competencies (cbc’s) expected at various school levels. The CBSs include communication and collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and imagination, citizenship, digital literacy, learning to learn and self-efficacy.  In Kenya and more specifically in Kisii County, studies done have not adequately explored the influence of parental involvement on pre-primary learners’ acquisition of core competencies at pre-primary learners’ acquisition of competencies  yet adequate acquisition of competencie  at pre-primary school enables learners to be good performers at this stage, and other succeeding educational levels. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the influence of parental involvement on pre-primary 2 (PP2) school pupils’ acquisition of core competencies. Specifically, the study was to establish the cause-effect associations between the independent variable (volunteering) and the dependent variable (acquisition) of the Competency-Based Curriculum’s (CBC’s) core competencies. Epstein’s (2005) theory of parental involvement and ex post facto research design were utilized alongside a mixed methods approach. A population of 702 public PP2 schools and teachers as well as 25,105 parents of PP2 pupils was targeted. Purposive, cluster and stratified sampling techniques were employed to select a main sample or Set 1 comprising 248 teachers and 378 parents from whom quantitative data were sourced using questionnaires. Additionally, a second set or sub-sample of 30 parents (divided into 6 groups of 5 participants each) was selected, from whom qualitative data were sourced, for use with Focus Group Interviews in a total of six sessions. Data collection tools were pre-tested in seven PP2 schools. To determine the accuracy and consistency of the research instruments, content validity and split-half techniques were utilised, where a reliability correlation coefficient of 0.8 was established. For data analysis, qualitative information was analysed thematically in verbatim form. On the other hand, using IBM SPSS Statistics 20, quantitative data were computed using descriptive statistics namely, frequencies to summarise as well as organise data, while for testing of the hypothesis, inferential statistics namely, Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression were used to assess the association as well as strength of the relationships between the independent and dependent variables, respectively. The findings of the hypothesis revealed a positive and significant correlation between Volunteering (r = .204, n = 369, p < .01) and learners’ acquisition of core competencies. It was therefore concluded that volunteering influenced PP2 learners’ acquisition of CBC’s core competencies. Hence, the study recommended that key stakeholders should create opportunities where parents can be involved in Volunteering processes. Workshops could also be conducted to sensitize parents on ways they can be involved in school activities, which may hopefully enhance PP2 learners’ acquisition of CBC’s core competencies