Early childhood education in Kenya (ECDE) - Are the goals adequate?

Publish date: 2024-07-28

The Early Childhood Education in Kenya has undoubtedly set goals and objectives for the development of the future of Kenyan children. The goals may, however, be difficult to attain. Here's why.

What is ECDE

The ECDE serves the major critical responsibility of making children well prepared for their future education. There is minimal involvement by the Government of Kenya. It is a universal fact that the parents are ultimately responsible for the development, planning and the management of the different childhood programmes. On the other hand, the common problems are also applicable to the system such as lack of program constituency and funding.

This historical development of early childhood education actually begun in the 1940s. Just after that Kenya’s education system seemed to have evolved further. This expansion in the education system has led to growth and development by increasing the total number of children getting a pre-education facility.

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This service has been provided to a large number of pre-schools which are also known as kindergartens, nursery schools, pre-primary units and day care centres.

Early childhood development education in Kenya

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Preschool education is not very necessary in Kenya. Before joining a primary school, it is not necessary for the children to attend any ECDE class or even a pre-primary school. Anyways, most of the schools in Kenya these days have a pre-primary department linked to them. Nearly 75% of more than 50,000 ECDE centres located in Kenya are linked to a primary school.

Pre-primary quality and demand

Kenya’s workforce has been filled up by more women. What this has done is increased the early education services demand which has definitely proliferated the private and public sectors. But there is also a drawback which is the fact that most of the children who are attending these preschools are not actually receiving any quality education.

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The goals of early childhood education in Kenya will never be successful if proper attention is not given to this sector. Even the financial support provided by the government is not at all sufficient for proper functioning of the organization. They are often accompanied by the lack of good nutrition services and learning materials.

Kids who will receive a good pre-primary education actually face a set back because of the decline in the primary school education quality. For the children who come from a poor financial background, this might make it difficult for them to prepare for further education and may even disrupt their future choice of career.

Improving the education quality and accessing the challenges faced in the early education is the major objective of the ‘Tayari’ programme. This programme was primarily designed to develop a cost-effective, tested and an affordable model that is going to ensure the children are prepared for primary school education. The meaning of Tayari is ‘ready’ in Kiswahili and it is going to effectively keep improving the ECDE model.

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Overview of early childhood education in Kenya

The ECD or Early Childhood Development in Kenya is associated with the holistic development of the children on Kenya of the age group 0 to 5 years old. The Ministry of Education is responsible for the ECD. Such programmes are very important, in fact, the government should try to involve more and actively implement policies and development of strategies so as to eliminate the challenges facing early childhood education in Kenya.

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ECD is not a part of the Education and Training Act which is prevailing at the current period. The partnership policy has been the only policy that is directing the provision of the Ministry of Education. The Children’s Act, on the other hand, is responsible for safeguarding the welfare and rights of the Kenyan children, starting from their early childhood to adolescence.

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Ministry of education and early childhood education in Kenya

The MOE or the Ministry of Education needs to take proper care of the ECD programmes for the country. It also includes several other ministries for the implementation and planning. At the national level there are a total of three concerned sections:

  • The Division of the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards is actually for the training institutions and preschools, administration of the teacher’s certificates of the preschool teachers and their trainee examinations.
  • The NACECE which is housed in the KIE (Kenyan Institute of Education) is responsible for the material development, preschool curriculum, training and development of the other branches of early childhood education.
  • It is also responsible for policy guidelines formulation, funding, coordination of data collection, trainer’s provision and also the registration of preschools.

    • Source: TUKO.co.ke

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