By Kipilat Kapusia
The National and County governments have been faulted for neglecting Early Childhood Education (ECD) in pastoral areas, with education stakeholders and leaders now demanding counties in the North Rift build more pre-primary schools.
The areas have been seriously neglected due to insecurity as thousands of children of school-going age in the North Rift are either forced to flee their homes or their ECDE Centres have been desserted.
This has often led to desperate measures, including older children carrying their siblings on their backs for long distances to find the next makeshift school.
Provision of early childhood education is a devolved function, and counties are required by the Constitution to build many of the centres closer to the people, even if removed from a fully-fledged school.
Among the organizations that have raised the red flag is the Kenya National Union of Teachers [KNUT], which has raised concerns over inadequate funds for early childhood education in most counties in the North Rift.
Union officials from the region have called on the National and County governments to significantly increase the budget for early childhood education, especially in marginalized counties.
KNUT executive member representing the Rift Valley region Mr. Martin Sembelo said that special attention needs to be paid to early childhood education, especially in disadvantaged communities, and to use available funds to improve these services.
He said the money set aside by County governments for ECDE was little, yet the sector is faced with a lot of challenges.
Speaking recently in his Kapenguria office, Sembelo, who is also the West Pokot KNUT secretary, said about a thousand children in the area do not join school because there are no schools in the first place.
Mr. Sembelo called on stakeholders in the education sector to actively engage in advocating for measures to promote early childhood development.
He said at the moment many parents from the pastoralist communities have realized the need for education, and yet there are no schools to take their children.
Mr Sembelo stated that there is a need to improve the infrastructure in existing ECDEs to improve education.
“We need to see more involvement of the private sector, but we also need to see an increase in the government’s budget,” he said.
Mr Sembelo said that at present, little money from the education budget goes towards early childhood education.
He said government policy makers should set clear policies regarding the provision of equitable and quality childhood education and care.
“We are clear about what needs to be done and we need to make sure we allocate the resources for these to really happen,” he added.
At the same time, Kacheliba MP Mark Lomunokol called on the County and National governments to create mobile schools in remote pastoral areas along the County borders as another solution to the problem.
“This will be an avenue for children to attend evening classes,” said the MP.
He called on the government to help with temporary structures and materials which are portable so they can be easily accessed and moved.
“We have hundreds of children who are supposed to attend ECDE learning but due to lack of teachers they are forced to stay away. There is a stereotype that pastoral communities don’t like education but the way of life forces them to stay that way,” said Lomunokol.
Volunteer teacher Irene Serelwa, who moves from one village to another educating the children, said even though she takes the classes under trees, children are willing to come, showing interest in the ECDE classes.
“These villages along the border have many children who are thirsty for education but there are no schools and teachers,” she said.
