Influence of Teachers’ Qualifications on the Provision of Quality Early Grade Education to Children with Learning Disabilities in Nairobi City County, Kenya

The main aim of this study was to establish the influence of teachers’ qualifications on the provision of quality early childhood education to learners with Learning Disability (LD) in Nairobi City County. The theory of social constructivism by Vygotsky (1978) was adopted. Descriptive survey design guided the study using mixed methods. The target population comprised of 25 head teachers and 55 classroom teachers. Simple random sampling technique was used to purposively select 8 (32%) early grade schools, 16 (29%) teachers and 8 (32%) head teachers. The research instruments included interviews for the head teachers, questionnaires for teachers and learning task for PP2 pupils. Four schools were utilised for piloting the research instruments in order to validate the study content based on the study objectives while test- retest reliability technique at coefficient of 0.7 was used to determine their soundness. Quantitative data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means and percentages while qualitative data was summarised and analysed according to specific study themes. The study findings revealed that academic and professional qualifications significantly influenced the quality of ECE delivered to learners with disabilities. It was found that majority of the teachers had education level of up to Form IV, which limit the ability of these teachers to deliver quality and specialized contents to special learners in their schools. Moreover, majority of the respondent including the head teachers admitted that low academic and professional qualifications of teachers was significantly responsible for the challenges experienced by learners with disabilities in ECDE centers. The study concluded that lack of teachers trained in special needs education to handle students with LD negatively affected the performance of learners with LD. The study recommended the government to provide special training for all those teachers in all preprimary schools to be able to handle learners with LD. Also the ministry of education should organize for both in-service and pre service training courses for all teachers who handle learners with learning disabilities.