Parental Involvement Strategies and Challenges in Development of Pupils’ Literacy Skills in the Implementation of Competency Based Curriculum in Early Years Education in Kenya

Parents are the first teachers of a child and can greatly influence a child’s performance in school. This paper is a report of a study that was carried out in the year 2021on parental involvement strategies and challenges in the development of pupils’ literacy skills in the implementation of Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in Early Years Education (EYE) in Kenya. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology and a descriptive research design. This study was anchored on Epstein’s theory on parental involvement in education. The target population consisted of teachers and parents in Early Years Education level in private and public schools in Kapseret Sub-County, Uasin-Gishu County in Kenya. Stratified and simple random sampling methods were used to select six private schools and six public schools to participate in the study. One parent in every school was selected through convenience sampling method. A total of twelve teachers and six parents participated in the study. Data was collected using interviews. The study found out that teachers were involving parents in the development of pupils’ literacy skills through reading and writing activities, home-work exercises, acquisition of reading and writing materials, and use of story-telling and singing pre-reading activities. From the findings, the most serious challenges experienced were lack of cooperation and limitations of time by some parents; limitations of reading and writing materials especially in the public schools; and limited knowledge and skills by teachers and parents on CBC philosophy and principles. The public schools were more challenged on parental engagement compared to the private schools. The study recommended that the government should escalate capacity building seminars for teachers; schools should organize parental awareness seminars; the government should provide adequate reading and writing materials in public schools; and parents be sensitized to create more time for their children’s education. This study is significant as it informs the implementation of the CBC for Kenya and elsewhere and enhancement of parent-teacher relationships in children’s literacy development.