American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR) 2020 AJHSSR Journal Page | 201 American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR) e-ISSN :2378-703X Volume-4, Issue-3, pp-201-208 www.ajhssr.com Research Paper Open Access PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPETENCY BASED CURRICULUMIN KENYA: PERCEIVED CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Dr. Catherine N. Mwarari, Dr. Perminus Githui & Dr. Margaret Mwenje ABSTRACT: Parental active involvement in the education of their children is widely assumed to be critical for successful educational outcomes. Based on Epstein‟s overlapping spheres of influence theory, this paper explores the perceived challenges and opportunities of this collaboration from the perspectives of Kenyan parents with children in the early years of schooling. The cross sectional survey design was used involving 335 parents from two selected counties in Kenya – one rural and the other urban. The participants responded to a questionnaire that sought to establish the barriers parents encountered as they partnered with schools as well as the strategies, they envisaged would enhance effective parental engagement for healthy academic, emotional and social development of their children. Results indicated that parents acknowledged the importance of home- school collaboration. However, lack of time, an absence of induction on the competency-based curriculum, inadequate skills and knowledge to assist children, lack of resources were found to be the major challenges parents faced as they partnered with schools. Implications and bespoke strategies for enhancing parental involvement in the CBC are presented. Key Words: Parental involvement, challenges, opportunities, competency-based curriculum, educational outcomes I. INTRODUCTION The school-family collaboration is embedded in research and is the basis of several educational policies and programmes. This collaboration also known as parental involvement is conceptualised as the abilities of parents to work with schools in a manner that aids the child‟s holistic development (Antony-Newman, 2019). Parents and other primary caregivers are the child‟s first teacher and this responsibility continues when the child starts school and endures even in adulthood. Parental involvement in their c hildren‟s education through a collaborative partnership with schools, research indicates, positively impacts on school related outcomes for children (Epstein, 1987; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997; Dunst, Johanson, Rounds, Trivet & Hamby, 1992; Kalayci & Oz, 2018; Wong, Ho, Wong, Tung, Chow, Rao &Ip, 2018).Besides this overarching aim of home- school partnership, other proven benefits of this collaboration include: improvement of school programs and school climate, provision of family services and support, increased parents‟ skills and leadership, connection of families with others in the school and in the community as well as helping teachers with their work (Kabir & Akter, 2014). These collaborative activities may be planned to involve, guide, empower, and inspire learners to produce their own successes and the underlying supposition is that if children feel cared for and are encouraged to work hard in the role of student, they are more likely to do their best to learn (Epstein, 1995). For the purpose of this paper, this partnership is grounded on the six types of partnerships as espoused by Epstein (1995) namely: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating with the community. Parenting involves assisting all families in a school to create home environments to support children as learners. The communicating partnership is developing an effective two-way communication between home and school in regard to school activities and the child‟s progress. The volunteering involvement exhorts families to be involved in school activities voluntarily while the learning at home collaboration allows families to have strategies to help learners at home with homework and other school related activities. Decision making partnership involves inclusion of parents in school‟s decisions and allowing for their representation in school committees whereas collaborating with the community is the acknowledgement of the need for input of stakeholders and facilitating community involvement.