ABSTRACT
Globally, provision of quality early childhood education training remains elusive especially in most developing countries. There are various challenges facing implementation of Early Childhood Education despite its growth. This is with regards to training and trainees’ welfare and their satisfaction. 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 guided by the following objectives: to establish the level of teacher trainees’ satisfaction with quality of education in colleges offering ECE courses; to determine the relationship between availability of physical facilities and teacher trainees’ satisfaction with quality of education in ECDE colleges; to find out the relationship between use of ICT in instruction and teacher trainees satisfaction with quality of education in ECDE colleges; to determine the relationship between availability of instructional materials and teacher trainees satisfaction with the quality of education in ECDE colleges; and to establish the relationship between methods of instruction and teacher trainees satisfaction with the quality of education in ECDE colleges. The study was premised on ExpectancyDisconfirmation 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. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 4 ECDE colleges from a total of 6 ECDE colleges. Twenty five trainees and 5 instructors from each of the 4 sampled ECDE colleges were selected using random sampling technique translating to a sample size of 120 respondents (212 trainees and 20 instructors).Questionnaires, interview guides and observation checklists were used to collect the required data. Questionnaire and the interview schedule were piloted in two ECDE colleges in Thika West Sub-County to enhance validity and reliability of the instruments. Data collected was edited, coded, and classified on the basis of similarity and analyzed descriptively using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Tables were used to present the data. 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. Such facilities as water and toilets were not sufficient hence exposing trainees to poor hygiene and sanitation. The study concludes that availability of instructional materials, availability of physical facilities, ICT use in teaching and learning and methods of instruction were statistically significant, hence all the hypotheses were accepted. 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.