Determinants Of Reading Difficulties Among Standard Five Pupils With Learning Disabilities In Public Primary Schools, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya

ABSTRACT 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of Reading Difficulties among standard five pupils with Learning Disabilities (LD) in public primary schools in Keiyo sub county, Elgeyo Marakwet County. The study intended to find out the extent to which reading difficulties exist among pupils with LD in class five. It also determined the learning strategies used by pupils with reading difficulties in class five. In addition, it determined the strategies used in teaching reading in class five. Finally, the study aimed at determining the availability of resources used for teaching reading in class five. Descriptive Survey Design was used in the study. The study was carried out in Keiyo Sub- County. The study targeted a population of 2628, consisting of all class five pupils, their English teachers and head teachers in public primary schools in Keiyo Sub- County. Simple random sampling was used to get the twenty public primary schools to be involved in the study. Purposeful sampling was used to select five learners with reading difficulties in each of the twenty primary schools selected. The pupils were selected from those pupils who perennially post low marks in academic areas especially in English subject as per their class end term mark lists and the subject teachers also played a crucial in identifying pupils with reading problems in their respective classes. The purposeful sampling was also used to get class five English subject teachers. On the other hand, Convenience sampling was used to get the twenty Head teachers from the sampled schools. In summary, the sample size was 100 pupils, 20 teachers and 20 head teachers making a total sample size of 140. The data collection instruments employed entailed these: observation schedule for the pupils and questionnaires for the English teachers and the head teachers. The observation schedule was used to find out the extent to which reading difficulties exist among pupils with LD in class five by testing on three reading areas which entailed; oral word recognition, oral reading of passage and silent reading of passages. A pilot study was conducted at Salaba primary school which is found within the Sub-County thus bear similar geographical characteristics with the sampled schools and therefore was used to determine the validity and reliability of the data collection instruments. The data collected was analyzed using combined designs i.e both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data was first coded and entered in SPSS spread sheet and then checked for errors. All the gathered information was analyzed using descriptive statistics by using percentages, frequency tables, bar graphs and pie–charts. The qualitative statistics was analyzed thematically basing on the respondents point of views. The study found out that children with reading difficulties do not have learning strategies like meta-cognition, self- directed, coping, organization, analogy skills and rehearsal skills. Most public primary schools did not have adequate learning resources therefore had direct influence in education of those pupils with disabilities. The study also found out the use of phonics, whole language peer tutoring and cooperation learning were effective methods of teaching if implemented adequately. The study therefore recommends that teachers should be trained on SNE in order to be equipped with appropriate pedagogical skills to address diverse needs of learners in inclusive settings, teachers should teach pupils better learning and reading skills, the government should allocation more funds for the purchase of instructional materials.