The ongoing push to scrap or radically destabilise Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) training stands out as one of the most careless policy experiments to confront Kenya’s education sector in recent years. In West Pokot County, the proposal has not been received as reform, innovation, or progress. It has been felt as a direct betrayal, one that targets the most vulnerable teachers, threatens the most fragile learners, and exposes a dangerous disconnect between policymakers and the realities of the classroom.
Scrapping ECDE Training Is a Reckless Policy Gamble That Betrays Teachers, Undermines Children, and Punishes West Pokot and Kenya at large
The gravity of the crisis has been bluntly articulated by the Kenya Union of Nursery Schools Teachers (KUNNOPET) West Pokot County Secretary, Joseph Sarich, who has warned that the confusion and silence surrounding ECDE training reforms have pushed teachers to the edge. Sarich’s intervention is not alarmist rhetoric; it is a grounded response to rising fear, anger, and professional insecurity among ECDE teachers who now feel abandoned by the very system they trusted.
ECDE is not a peripheral sector. It is the bedrock upon which all future learning is built. Decades of research and classroom experience agree on one truth: when early learning is destabilised, the entire education system weakens. Yet ECDE continues to be treated as expendable, its teachers as disposable, and its structures as policy experiments rather than national priorities.
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In West Pokot, this neglect has long been evident. ECDE teachers have endured years of poor pay, temporary contracts, inadequate facilities, and limited recognition. Despite these hardships, they responded positively when training and certification were emphasised as professional requirements. Teachers enrolled in colleges, paid fees from personal savings, and upgraded their skills, believing that training would secure their careers and dignify their profession.
That belief is now under threat.
The move to scrap or weaken ECDE training has plunged teachers into deep uncertainty. They are asking urgent questions with no answers: Will existing certificates still be recognised? Will years of experience count for anything? Will retraining be mandatory, and who will pay for it? Will a new cadre of teachers be introduced to replace those already serving? These are not theoretical concerns. They are questions of survival.
What makes the situation indefensible is not only the proposal itself, but the arrogant manner in which it has been handled. There has been no comprehensive policy framework shared with teachers. No transition roadmap. No financial commitment to protect serving educators. Instead, there is silence from authorities and reliance on rumours, circulars, and speculation, an insult to a profession that deserves clarity and respect.
Joseph Sarich has correctly called out this leadership failure. He has warned that ECDE teachers are being destabilised psychologically and professionally, yet they are expected to continue delivering quality education as if nothing is wrong. According to Sarich, this contradiction is unsustainable and dangerous.
ECDE teachers are already among the most exploited workers in the education sector. Many are employed by county governments on short-term contracts, earning wages that barely meet basic needs. Most have no pension schemes, no medical cover, and no structured career progression. To now threaten the very training that legitimised their employment is to compound injustice with cruelty.
If this policy direction continues unchecked, the consequences will be severe. Demoralised teachers disengage long before they resign. Commitment declines, absenteeism increases, and classrooms lose stability. In early childhood education, where emotional security, routine, and trust are essential, such instability is catastrophic.
Training institutions have not been spared either. Colleges that invested heavily in ECDE programmes now face declining enrolment and potential closure. Tutors with specialised expertise in child development and early learning pedagogy are watching their profession being dismantled without consultation or explanation. This is not efficiency; it is institutional waste.
The contradiction at the heart of this policy mess is glaring. Kenya continues to champion Competency-Based Education (CBE), a system that relies heavily on strong early foundations. Yet at the same time, it appears willing to weaken the training structures that prepare teachers to deliver those foundations. One cannot claim commitment to competence while dismantling capacity.
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Parents should also be alarmed. Early childhood classrooms are not laboratories for half-baked reforms. Children aged three to six require skilled, trained, and motivated teachers. Any reform that undermines teacher preparation at this level risks lowering standards and widening inequality. Marginalised counties like West Pokot will suffer first and most severely.
This unfolding crisis exposes a familiar pattern in education governance: top-down policymaking that excludes teachers, unions, and communities. Decisions are made in distant offices, then imposed on classrooms with little explanation. When resistance arises, teachers are portrayed as enemies of reform rather than partners in progress.
That narrative is dishonest.
Teachers are not resisting change. They are resisting erasure. They are demanding what any professional group deserves: consultation, respect, and protection from arbitrary decisions. KUNNOPET’s position, as articulated by Joseph Sarich, is straightforward and reasonable: recognise existing qualifications, protect serving teachers, fund any transitions, and involve educators meaningfully at every stage.
Anything less amounts to coercion masquerading as reform.
West Pokot’s context makes this issue even more urgent. The county already grapples with poverty, infrastructural challenges, and historical marginalisation. ECDE centres often operate with minimal resources, yet teachers continue to show up daily, driven by commitment rather than reward. To destabilise this fragile system without safeguards is not a neutral policy; it is structural harm.
If authorities proceed on this path, they should not be surprised by resistance. Professional dignity is not negotiable. Teachers who feel cornered will organise, speak out, and defend their livelihoods. This is not defiance; it is self-preservation.
The broader lesson is one policymakers repeatedly ignore: you cannot reform education by humiliating educators. You cannot strengthen foundations by weakening those who build them. And you cannot expect trust while governing through silence and surprise.
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This is a moment for sober reflection. ECDE training should be strengthened, standardised, and supported, not scrapped or trivialised. Teachers should be reassured, not threatened. Children should be protected, not exposed to uncertainty.
West Pokot’s ECDE teachers are not expendable. They are the backbone of early learning in a county that needs stability, not disruption. Undermine them, and the consequences will echo through classrooms, communities, and generations.
Destroying the foundation of education in the name of reform is not bold leadership. It is failure dressed up as policy.
By Hillary Muhalya
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