By Robert Nyagah
The recent opening of 18 new ECDE centers and employment of 10 teachers in Kirinyaga County has propelled the number of learners to 18,747, Governor Anne Waiguru has said.
Today the number of teachers hired to work in ECDE Centers stands at 444, all hosted in 198 schools with 9,427 boys and 9,520 girls respectively, according to a report released by the county’s Communication unit.
For some time now, education experts have been grappling with answers as to why the population of boys continued to fall when compared to girls, especially in secondary schools, even at a time the number of those entering lower primary classes were at times higher.
In the report, the governor discloses that the most recent factor in the improvement of education at the ECDE level was the acquisition and distribution of additional teaching and learning materials worth around Sh10 million to the centres.
Learners’ population in the ECDE centers, the report indicates, has been boosted by the diversion of children earlier studying in private and sometimes church owned schools to the well-equipped devolved unit-managed institutions.
“The increase in enrollment at the centers was because most parents – who would previously enroll their children in private – are now settling for the refurbished and new public ones,” said the governor.
All the new schools which have been celebrated for providing a highly conducive learning atmosphere to children were completed through the county’s department of education, whose key aim was, according to Governor Waiguru, to create conducive learning environment for all the county’s young learners.
“My administration is fully dedicated and determined to empowering the ECDE centres across the county to enable them provide high quality education and care,” said the governor.
The report says since the Waiguru administration started heightened campaigns to improve education facilities, the quality of learning skills among pupils transiting to primary school had shown huge improvement.
Morale among teachers and pupils, the report further indicates, was already being reflected through good performance by the young learners.
The new, fully equipped and modern government approved ECDE centres are listed as Kiumbu, Mathangauta, Nyamindi, Gikumbo, Kiorugari, Kagondo, Kithiriti and Kutus.
The teacher to pupil ratio, the report says, had also been improved to acceptable levels of 1: 41 while gross enrolment rate stood at 62 per cent.
Teachers from a cross section of the ECDE centers expressed satisfaction at the modernization of the institutions with one at the new Kiumbu Centre noting the population had grown from 50 to 97 learners
The teachers noted that in some instances, learners would be hosted at poor structures such as Church halls, tents and makeshift classrooms; all lacking any safety measures and necessary equipment.
Waiguru clarified that her government’s mission was to ensure that all early childhood learners accessed quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are well prepared to transit to primary school.
