- Senate Education Committee finds Machakos ECDE centres facing teacher shortages, inadequate facilities and feeding delays, with parents paying about KSh500 per learner monthly for teachers.
- Some parent-employed ECDE teachers earn less than KSh5,000, prompting calls for county recruitment to ease the burden on families.
The shortage of teachers in Machakos County’s Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centres is increasingly being felt not only in classrooms but also in the pockets of parents, with some families reportedly paying monthly contributions to keep teachers in school.
The issue came into sharp focus when the Senate Standing Committee on Education conducted an oversight visit to ECDE centres and vocational training centres in Machakos, exposing a contrast between persistent gaps in basic education and significant investment in vocational skills development.
Led by Committee Chairperson Senator Betty Montet, the team visited Kyanguli and Manza ECDE centres and Kalumoni and Kyemutheke Vocational Training Centres (VTCs). The senators also held discussions with Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti and county officials on the implementation of devolved education functions.
At the ECDE centres, the Committee identified teacher shortages, inadequate facilities and delays in food supplies as some of the challenges affecting learners.
One of the most striking concerns was the continued reliance on parent-employed teachers in some centres.
Senator Kinyua Nderitu said parents were contributing about KSh500 per learner every month towards teachers’ salaries, effectively transferring part of the responsibility for staffing public ECDE centres to families.
The arrangement raises questions about the sustainability of relying on parental contributions to fill gaps in a devolved public education function, particularly in communities where households are already under financial pressure.
Nderitu called for the County Government to recruit and pay sufficient numbers of ECDE teachers so that parents are not left carrying the cost of staffing classrooms.
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The problem appears even more acute for some of the teachers themselves
Senator Agnes Kavindu Muthama said some parent-employed ECDE teachers earn less than KSh5,000 a month, and urged the county administration to accelerate the recruitment process.
The concerns extend beyond teachers. The Committee was told that learners at one of the centres had reportedly gone for about a month without receiving food supplies. For young children, such interruptions can have implications for attendance, concentration and participation in learning.
Kavindu also raised concerns about the physical learning environment, calling for mattresses for children during rest periods and separate classrooms for Playgroup and PP1 learners.
The debate over ECDE in Machakos therefore goes beyond the question of how many teachers are available. It touches on the wider issue of whether devolved education services have the personnel, facilities, feeding arrangements and resources necessary to provide young children with a consistent learning environment.
But the Senate visit also revealed another side of the county’s education story.
At the vocational training centres, the Committee encountered substantial differences in infrastructure, equipment, staffing and enrolment.
One VTC visited was described as facing serious equipment and staffing challenges, while Kyemutheke VTC had comparatively well-equipped training facilities, boarding accommodation and a sizeable student population.
Senator Prof. Margaret Kamar said the contrast was useful because it allowed the Committee to see the different realities confronting vocational training institutions within the same county.
She urged the county administration to channel greater investment towards institutions experiencing equipment, teaching-material and staffing shortages rather than allowing disparities between centres to widen.
The VTC sector, however, also provided one of the more encouraging developments from the oversight tour.
Senator Montet said Machakos had graduated about 1,000 trainees earlier in the year and was targeting another 1,700 graduates by the end of October 2026.
The county has also introduced start-up kits for VTC graduates, an initiative intended to give newly trained young people practical support as they transition from training into self-employment.
Montet said the model demonstrated the potential of vocational training to move beyond certification and connect skills development with livelihoods.
She encouraged Machakos to extend investment to VTCs across all eight sub-counties, particularly those still struggling with equipment and teaching resources.
Kavindu similarly urged the county to replicate the investment seen at Kyemutheke in other centres.
The contrasting findings from the visit present a broader picture of devolved education in Machakos.
On one side are ECDE centres where staffing gaps can result in parents contributing directly towards teachers’ salaries, learners may face interruptions in feeding programmes, and basic facilities remain inadequate.
On the other are vocational institutions where sustained investment is beginning to create better-equipped training environments and a pathway from skills acquisition to self-employment.
The challenge for the county is therefore not simply to expand spending on education, but to ensure that investment reaches the points where the gaps are most pronounced.
For ECDE, that means addressing teacher shortages, improving working conditions, ensuring reliable food supplies and providing age-appropriate classrooms and basic facilities.
For VTCs, it means narrowing the gap between well-equipped institutions and those still struggling for equipment, trainers and learning materials.
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The Senate Committee’s intervention puts the spotlight on a fundamental question in devolved education: whether children and trainees across the same county are receiving reasonably consistent access to the teachers, facilities, food and equipment they need to learn.
The answer, based on the Committee’s observations, appears uneven.
The oversight visit is part of the Senate’s constitutional mandate to monitor the implementation of devolved functions and promote accountability in the use of public resources.
For Machakos, the findings provide both a warning and an opportunity, a warning that gaps in basic education can quickly become a burden on families, and an opportunity to build on the progress recorded in vocational training while extending resources to institutions that remain behind.
By Hillary Muhalya
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