Influence of Stakeholder Participation on Procurement Effectiveness of Preschools’ Teaching and Learning Resources in Nyando Sub-County, Kisumu County, Kenya

Provision of teaching and learning resources to preschools forms part of the overall policy for quality improvement in early childhood education. The influence of stakeholder involvement to bring out efficient provision of quality and relevance in child education is vital. This implies that stakeholder involvement plays a critical role in procurement of teaching and learning resources in preschools. Despite this involvement, a dearth of scientific research had been documented relating to the examination of factors that influence effectiveness procurement of preschool teaching and learning resources. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of stakeholder involvement approaches on procurement effectiveness of preschools of teaching and learning resources in Nyando Sub-County, Kenya. The objective of the study was to determine the influence of stakeholder participation on procurement effectiveness of preschools teaching/learning resources. The study adopted descriptive survey research design in collecting data from respondents. The researcher anchored the study on Epstein (1987, 1992) theory of overlapping spheres of influence. The study covered a target population of 449 participants with a sample size of 125 respondents, which constitutes 36head teachers, 61 ECDE teachers, 36 management committees, 4 ward coordinators and 1 sub-county ECDE co-coordinator. The study used a combination of stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. The instruments of data collection were structured questionnaires and interview guides. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics through Statistical Package of Social Sciences and presented in tables and graphs. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis procedures and then presented thematically according to the research objectives. The study found out that there is a positive influence of stakeholder collaborative approach on procurement effectiveness of preschools teaching and learning resources, stakeholder participatory approach has a positive but weak influence on procurement effectiveness of preschools teaching and learning resources. The influence of stakeholder consultative approach on procurement effectiveness of preschools teaching and learning resources was negative, insignificant and weak and there was significant positive influence of stakeholder empowering approach on procurement effectiveness of preschools teaching and learning resources. The study findings may help county government in formulating policies for streamlining stakeholder roles in procurement of various resources for ECDE learning and teachers to be encouraged to observe and practice good procurement strategies and practices. The study may be of benefit to the academicians as reference and may form a basis for further research in the field of stakeholder involvement in ECDE procurement of education resources. The recommendations provided for research created new areas for further research. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 27-02-2020 Date of Acceptance: 13-03-2020 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------