ABSTRACT

Safety of pupils in schools is a matter of concern globally. In Kenyan schools, children have lost their lives in the past few years due to arson, accidents and poisoning. Specifically, in Vihiga County, a high number of accidents have been reported in schools in spite of the existence of safety standards manual by the Ministry of Education. Although accidents could occur due to various factors, the study only purposed to find out the influence of teachers‟ preparedness on the provision of safe pre- school learning environment, since they are the key child caregivers in preschool. The study variables were; availability and knowledge of content of the safety standard manual, teacher training/ in-servicing, school organization and management, supervision, provision of safe physical learning environment and challenges faced by teachers in provision of safe learning environment. The study adopted a descriptive survey design, comprising a target of 300 preschools and 1200 preschool teachers, and a sample size of 60 (20%) preschools and 120 (10%) teachers from Vihiga County which was purposively selected for study, while systematic random sampling technique was employed to get the required number of pre-primary schools and teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires for preschool teachers and an observation checklist. Data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings established that, the rating of safety in the preschools sampled was generally high but it is good to emphasize that accidents are preventable through instituting safety measures but if they did occur, they should not exceed 2%. On availability and knowledge of the standard safety manual‟s contents by teachers and as observed by the researcher, were more aware about it while on the side of teachers, it was moderate. The most contributing factor hindering teacher preparedness on provision of safety was lack of frequent inservice training on how to ensure safety in the school environment. The study therefore recommended that; the preschool management should facilitate more in-service training/seminars for teachers in order to improve on their level of knowledge on safe learning environment; school management boards should ensure that information about safety requirements as stipulated in the policy guidelines is disseminated to all teachers and the surrounding community members and not to assume that they were aware of their existence.