Abstract:
Life skills are skills for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with demands and challenges of everyday life. The classroom education alone does not contribute completely to solving these challenges. International Development Agencies have acknowledged the importance of life skills for the purpose of solving some of these problems. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between Head teachers‟ management of life skills education and performance of learners in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in Narok County. The objectives of the study were to: find out the relationship between the influence of the Head teachers‟ management of learners‟ decision-making skills; find out the relationship between the influence of the Head teachers‟ management of learners‟ ability to manage emotions; the learners‟ ability to manage conflicts and performance of learners‟ in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in Narok County. The study used a descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study constituted 528 public primary schools. Simple random sampling at the rate of 30% was used to select 158 Head teachers as respondents for the study. The Questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. A pilot study was conducted in schools that did not participate to check reliability and validity of the instruments. Validity was determined through the use of professionals or experts in the area while reliability was arrived at using Cronbach‟s alpha index. The study yielded an alpha index of 0.953 hence acceptable and reliable. Pearson r correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that there was a slight relationship between Head teachers‟ management of learners‟ decision-making skills and learners‟ academic performance in KCPE in Narok County. It was found out that there was a significant relationship between self-esteem, emotional management and learners‟ ability to manage conflicts and the academic performance of the learners in KCPE in Narok County. It was noted that life skills education management has a significant positive relationship with academic performance of the learners in KCPE in Narok County. Based on the findings, it was concluded that Head teachers‟ management of learners‟ self-esteem, ability to manage emotions and ability to manage conflict has a relationship with academic performance. However, the Head teachers‟ management of learners‟ decision-making skills did not have a relationship with the academic performance of learners in Narok County. The study recommends that schools that sought to improve academic performance must not only insist on learners being taught the examinable subjects but should also consider life skills as a mandatory teaching subject. The results of the study are expected to be of great significance to the Policy Makers in Education in regard to Life Skills Education.
