Physical Facilities and Teacher Trainees Satisfaction with Quality of Education in Early Childhood Training Colleges in Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

Globally, provision of quality early childhood education training remains elusive especially in most developing countries. In Kenya, early childhood teachers for many years were training through the District Centre for Early Childhood Education until recently when the training was shifted to the formerly teacher training colleges due to the ongoing education reforms in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to assess the trainees’ satisfaction with the quality of training in Colleges offering early childhood development and education programmes in Thika West Sub County, Nairobi County. The study was premised on Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory of Customer Satisfaction as the theoretical underpinning of the study. Descriptive survey design was employed for the study. The study targeted 424 trainees and 40 trainers from 6 ECDE Colleges from Thika West Sub-County. The findings showed that majority of trainees in the ECDE colleges were not satisfied with the quality of education due to inadequate classrooms and teaching-learning materials. The study recommended that the management of the colleges should equip them with the essential physical facilities in order to enhance the quality of training and education. The findings of the study may be useful to the key stakeholders in establishing approaches towards improving the wellbeing of the trainees in ECDE colleges.