INFLUENCE OF TEACHER PREPAREDNESS ON LEANERS ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH FUNCTIONAL WRITING AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS IN WEST POKOT COUNTY. KENYA

Functional writing is a pragmatic use of language for social and personal expression. It is a universal communication tool that determines achievement of students’ lifelong goals. Teacher preparedness. Among the functional skills namely; functional writing, cloze test and oral functional skills, functional writing skills recorded the lowest mean score in the Kenya certificate of secondary education (K.C.S.E) examination at 33.7% compared to 62.5% for cloze test and 45.6% for oral skills, for period 2008 to 2018 in West Pokot County. Performance of functional writing skills in the county is the lowest compared to Turkana with 42.2% and Samburu with 43.9%. The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of selected teacher preparedness determinants of achievement in English functional writing skills among secondary school students in West Pokot County. The objectives of the study were to: establish the Influence of teacher preparedness on leaners achievement in English functional writing among secondary school learners in West Pokot County. Kenya. A conceptual framework was used show the relationship between independent variables (teacher preparedness) and dependent variable (students’ achievement in functional writing). The study used descriptive survey and correlation study designs. The study population consisted of 2580 Form 4 students who had been taught all functional skills, and 34 teachers of English subject from 34 schools. The study used saturated sampling technique to select 31 teachers while Krejcie and Morgan table was used to determine sample size of 334 students who were then randomly sampled. Data collection was done through teacher questionnaire and observation schedule, achievement test. Pilot study comprised of 3 teachers of English and 250 students from 3 secondary schools. Cronbach’s alpha formula was used to establish instrument’s reliability whereby reliability coefficient for Teacher questionnaire was 0.82. Supervisors from the Department of Educational Communication Technology, and Curriculum Studies of Maseno University ascertained content validity of instruments. Descriptive statistics (percentages and mean), were used to analyze quantitative data. A random effect model was used to show the magnitude of relationship between variables. The findings revealed that the relationship between teachers’ preparedness and students’ achievement was statistically significant (1.67, 95% CL: 1.31, 2.05; p-value<0.001). The study concludes that teacher preparedness was the most significant factor. The study recommended that teachers should prepare well to meet need of the learners.