Early childhood education teacher support through teachers advisory centre workshops in wareng district, Kenya

The use of learning materials is an invaluable approach to effective curriculum delivery. Education practitioners have long recognized that Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) and indeed any other level of education cannot be effective without the use of learning materials. Teachers Advisory Centres (TACs) were established with the basic function of organizing in-service training for teachers in order to help them implement the curriculum effectively. However, the TACs have been ineffectual in this mission and have drifted away from this central function. This study therefore surveyed the role played by the TACs in in-servicing teachers in the production and use of learning materials in Wareng District. The sample comprised of ECD teachers, lower primary school teachers, head teachers and TAC tutors. Data was derived from the sample by questionnaires and interview schedules. The study established low levels of intervention by the TACs in the production and use of learning materials in ECDE; it was found that workshops and professional meetings for ECDE teachers were hard to come by due to long distances from the TACs to the schools, financial constraints, the heavy workloads and also because information about the workshops and meetings sometimes didn’t get to the teachers. The study recommended that TACs be well facilitated in order to improve the services that it offered.