By Rosemil Oduor
Nyandarua governor Francis Kimemia has promised to employ 200 additional Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers this March.
He added that 383 preparatory assistants will also be absorbed on a permanent and pensionable basis.
Kimemia said that the new teachers will enjoy a new scheme and an improved package.
The move seeks to improve education in the county, especially now that ECDE classes have been included in the new curriculum.
He pointed out that certificate holders’ entry point will be at Job Group E, diploma holders at Job Group H while degree holders will join the scheme of service at Job Group K.
“Employing the teachers on permanent and pensionable terms will give them morale to work,” he said.
Kimemia expressed concern that the education standards in the county had deteriorated and argued that employing more teachers will solve the problem.
“ECDE lays the foundation stone of education and if we don’t support it, we will be negatively impacting the education system,” he pointed out.
The governor revealed that the county government had partnered with New KCC to roll out a free milk programme to benefit the 23,000 nursery school children in the 496 public schools in the county.
“The free milk will be offered three times a week and will be available to public ECDE centres in the seven sub-counties,” he said.
He revealed that there were plans to extend the programme to privately owned nursery schools across the county with a total population of 19,000 children.
“We had to roll out the milk programme after realizing that more than 30% of the children in the county faced malnutrition while 23 percent suffered stunted growth due to lack of food. We will also add a porridge programme as porridge is more nutritious.” Kimemia noted.
