TEACHER FACTORS INFLUENCING CHILDREN'S TRANSITION TO CLASS ONE IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA

Education plays a very critical role in human development. Essentially, it makes the person more robust, manageable and productive in many areas of human life. However, despite the remarkable success in education access through policy framework and other commitments by governments and stakeholders, pre-school to primary school pupils’ transition experience many challenges that lead to pupil attrition in primary schools and lower school completion rates than expected. Transition rate is the probability a learner in a particular class will be in the next class in the succeeding year. For a school age population of approximately one million pupils in Kenya, the early dropout rates are significant and indicate that the country fails to realize the development of an important part of its human capital. In addition, the pre-school to primary school transition rates disparities are marked among the 47 counties. Therefore, the study sought to establish how teacher factors, curriculum factors and infrastructural factors affect children’s transitioning into primary school in Northern Zone, Nakuru County. The study was carried out using descriptive survey design and targeted 29 head teachers and 87 class one teachers drawn from 29 public primary schools in the Northern Zone of Nakuru County. From these a sample size of 92 respondents was obtained using both purposive and systematic random sampling. Data was collected through questionnaires and interview schedules. Descriptive statistical analysis was done using, frequencies and percentages and the results presented in tables. The study found that teacher factors significantly influenced successful transition of the learners into primary school. In particular, teaching methods, teacher availability and teacher experience in handling transitioning pupils were important for learner transition into primary school. The study, therefore, recommends that the education stakeholders in the county should redouble their efforts to ensure that experienced and well trained teachers – preferably with some Early Childhood Development orientation- are placed at class one to handle transitioning learners