Evaluation Of Procuring Biology Resources For Teaching And Learning In Public Seconadry Schools, Nakuru District

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to evaluate procurement for biology resources for teaching and learning in public secondary schools in Nakuru District Kenya. Specific objectives for the study were to establish whether schools have established procurement committees, teaching and learning material selection committee, that coordinate procurement of biology resources for teaching and learning .The study used the input- output systemic theory of organization as transdisciplinary and integrative. The study was conducted in Nakuru District of Rift Valley Province. The study adopted a descriptive survey design targeting 18 public secondary schools. The strata comprised category of national, provincial and district category of schools. The distribution of school type comprised day, boarding, boys, and girls and mixed secondary schools. The strata included 2 national, 8 provincial and 8 district category of schools. Respondents were headteachers, deputy headteachers, and science heads of departments, Bursars, form two students and the district quality assurance and standards officer. Research instruments were validated through the application of content validity determined by expert judgment of supervisors, while reliability of questionnaire was determined by split-half method with Spearman-rank correlation coefficient of 0.75 after pre-testing to respondents in four purposively selected pilot schools. Upon obtaining a research permit from the National Council for Science and Technology, to proceed with the study, the researcher personally administered the questionnaires to collect data. Collected data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively with Statistical Programm for Social Sciences version 17.0. Descriptive statistics was applied to analyzed data obtained. Findings revealed that, all schools have constituted procurement also called tender committee, but are yet to form teaching and learning material selection committee. Biology resources for teaching and learning are satisfactory, at a ratio of 1:3 with request for quotation dominantly used for procurement. There is dearth of procurement information among headteachers, deputy headteachers and science heads of departments, majority who opted to remain neutral or not responding to question items. Challenges identified were delayed fund disbursement, limited training in procurement amongst procurement committee members, limited budgets, costly science resources and lack of appropriate science resource suppliers in the market. It is recommended that, factors likely to hinder the achievement of set strategies and targets to improve classroom- teaching be explicitly addressed. To reflect this, strong school management should be enhanced for efficient service delivery, transparency and unchecked accountability