Whereas the debate as to whether Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) ought to be run by the national or county governments remains as sexy as the hen and egg story of origin, the plight of pre-primary children in the wild arid northern Kenya child must come to light.
Besides the worrying question of low enrolment, the very few and far apart ECDE centres in northern frontier counties suffer lack of adequate facilities for smooth learning.
“We don’t have play materials, clean water and our only kitchen was recently felled down during flash floods,” says Ustadh Hamisi, chairman of Hatata Primary School in Tana River County.
Madam Habiba Aden, head teacher of Shimbiri School notes that learners whose processing ability is obstructed by ill health and malnutrition may need more instruction time in mastering required skills.
Interestingly, while 2021 Kenya ECDE Profile Survey Report showed that ECDE enrolment between 2014 and 2019 rose from 73.6 per cent to 109 per cent in most counties across the country, however, troubled northern counties registered minimum growth from 25.6 per cent to 36.7 per cent over the same period.
Not left behind in this retrogressive braked growth bracket are counties of Tana, Wajir, Isiolo Marsabit, Lamu and Mandera which had least number of ECDE tutors.
“Obviously quality pre-primary education just like any other department is decelerated by high child teacher ratio,” said Habiba.
Against this background education news noted that pre-primary school teachers meant to tutor the toddlers are a times are deployed in upper primary classes to quell the shouting challenge of understaffing in the arid northern Kenyan.
Notably, Garissa County Integrated Development 2023 -2027 Plan has 239,035 children within primary school bracket of 54.9 per cent and 45.1 per cent boys and girls respectively.
And gunning towards solutions, Garissa certainly needs extra classrooms and employ more ECDE teachers to meet the deficit.
“With low primary school enrolment, there is every need to carry out enrolment drive throughout the wild arid northern region,” advised the development plan.
READ ALSO:
And also sailing in the same boat is Wajir County which has low primary enrolment. The county’s Integrated Development Plan 2024 -2027 gross enrolment stood at low of 25.6 per cent in 2018 and 36.7 per cent in 2022 against a target high of 75 per cent.
In 2018 teacher pupil ratio stood at 1:25 in Wajir which as mother fate would have it, worsened to 1:33 against a target of 1:25 in the plan period.
The sad explanation here according the plan is that the ECDE caregivers were reduced from 620 in 2018 to 574 in 2022 against an increase in ECDE enrolment from 15,696 in 2018 to 19, 071 in 2022.
And since birds of the same feather flock together, arid pastoralist Mandera County Integrated Development Plan 2018- 2022 notes that the county has 259 public ECDE centres with an enrolment 34,341 kids with 19,066 boys and 15,275 girls in 2017.
Though with 260 trained teacher and similar number untrained teachers in 2024 employed by Mandera county council before devolution is a huge credit, the teachers are overburdened and underpaid.
In this respect Mandera County and other counties in the arid north are seeking local and international partnerships that can help in benchmarking on best practises in the ECDE sector.
By Amoto Ndiewo
Get more stories from our website: Education News
To write to us or offer feedback, you can reach us at: editor@educationnews.co.ke
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
>>> Click here to stay up-to-date with trending regional stories
