Influence of Facilities on Performance in Prevocational Subjects in the 8-4-4 Education System: Lessons for the Proposed Competence Based Curriculum in Kenya

This paper is based on a study about the 8-4-4 education system Art and Crafts in Embu District to determine pupils performance in relation to the available facilities and draw lessons for the new competence based curriculum. The research design was ex-post facto. Twenty schools, 500 pupils, and 62 Art and Crafts teachers were selected through stratified and simple random sampling. The Chi-square test results for the theory performance were, X2 (4), N = 408 = 38.89, P less than.05, X2 critical (4) = 9.49, P less than.05, Cramers V value=0.17, with similar results for practicals component X2 (4), N = 408 = 52.05, P less than.05, X2 critical (4) = 9.49, P less than.05, Cramers V value = 0.26. Thus, there was a significant but weak relationship, but slightly stronger for the practical component. It is recommended that the Government should avail adequate financing for resources and adequate preparation of the teachers for effective implementation.