TATHMINI YA UHUSIANO BAINA YA MITALAA YA KISWAHILI KATIKA VYUO VIKUU VYA UMMA NA MTALAA WA KISWAHILI KATIKA SHULE ZA UPILI NCHINI KENYA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Secondary school teachers are prepared in the universities. Its expected that the professional training they recieve equips them with the necessary knowledge and skills they require to teach in secondary schools which use one common curriculum upon graduation. However, these expectations are never met due to the fact that individual universities use different curricula while teachers are supposed to teach using one common curriculum designed for use in all secondary schools. It therefore follows that some teachers are faced with challenges while handling different aspects of the curriculum depending on how they were prepared by the universities where they were trained. The purpose of this study was to critically evaluate the relationship between Kiswahili curricula in public universities with the Kiswahili curriculum prepared by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to be implemented in secondary schools in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: investigate the relationship between curricula used in public universities and the KICD one used in secondary schools; identify aspects in curricula used to teach Kiswahili in public universities and those in the curriculum implemented in secondary schools in Kenya; to discuss the implementation of Kiswahili curricula in public universities and its influence on the performance of teachers in secondary schools. The study was anchored on Ralph Tyler’s (1949) Model of Curriculum Development which was later improved by Cruickshank (2018) following its criticism by Hiebovitch (1992), Kreitzberg (1993) and Kliebard (1995). The major tenets of this model are derived from four major questions based on the four aspects of curriculum namely; objectives, content, implementation and evaluation. The study was based on descriptive and survey design. The respondents were university lecturers and secondary school teachers of Kiswahili respectively. The area of study included public universities and secondary schools in Bungoma county. Purposive sampling was used to select five public universities and the 5 chairpersons of Kiswahili departments in universities. Simple random sampling was used to select 42 secondary school teachers and 17 lecturers from universities; stratified random sampling was used to select 42 secodary schools. Data was collected through questioning, interviews and document analysis by use of questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis guides. Data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative data was presented in form of verbatim excerpts while qualitative data was presented through tables, diagrams and percentages. Findings of this study revealed that aspects which comprised the curricula used in universities and the secondary school curriculum were the same, though they differed in some ways. The study concluded that there was no direct relationship between the curricula used in public universities with the Kiswahili curriculum used in the Kenyan secondary schools. Following the findings of this study, it is recommended that universities which prepare teachers cooperate with KICD in developing, reforming and reviewing the curriculum used in secondary schools, bearing in mind its aspects in relation to the universities’ curricula. Findings of this study may be useful to university lecturers, Ministry of Education, KICD, CUE together with Quality Assurance Standards body in universities in improving teaching of Kiswahili in secondary schools and universities.