AN INVESTIGATION OF THE TEACHER PREPAREDNESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMPETENCE-BASED AGRICULTURE SUBJECT CURRICULUM AT JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KENYA

Abstract

Curriculum review and change is occasioned by the need to keep learners abreast with the pertinent issues. In Kenya, the change in curriculum from the 8-4-4 to the current 2-6-3-3-3 comes with many changes that the teachers need to embrace. Since Agriculture is considered a core subject at the junior secondary level, this study sought to establish teachers’ preparedness in implementing the Agriculture subject curriculum. Desktop research design was adopted for this study which relied on data from relevant sources related to CBC. Main emphasis was on teacher preparedness in terms of subject matter, utilization of the school farm, mode of assessment and ICT integration in the teaching of competence based Agriculture. This study established that agriculture teachers being the agriculture subject curriculum implementers, their preparedness in terms of knowledge of the subject matter, ICT integration in teaching, mode of assessment and utilization of the school farm in teaching is poor. It was therefore concluded that most agriculture teachers at junior secondary schools are not well prepared for the implementation of agriculture subject curriculum. This study therefore recommended that the Government of Kenya should provide more in-service training to agriculture teachers at junior secondary to make them more prepared to effectively implement agriculture subject curriculum.