By Benedict Ng’etich
Kericho County Governor Paul Chepkwony has termed early childhood education as an essential building block for success.
He said his government was keen to lay a firm foundation on ECDEs to improve prospects of learners.
“Early childhood education is an essential building block for the success of any child,” the governor said when he unveiled furniture worth Sh20 million to be distributed to 221 ECDE centres in the county.
The furniture comprises of 9,000 chairs and 1,500 tables for learners and 250 tables and chairs for teachers.
He said his administration was keen to provide a good learning environment for learners and teachers.
The County Executive Committee member for Education Lily Ngok said the department was focusing on equipping all ECDE centres in the county.
The chairman of the Budget Committee of the Kericho County Assembly Albert Kipkoech said Sh151 million was allocated for the construction of model ECDE classrooms while Sh10 million was set aside to complete ECDE classrooms under construction.
The Assembly also allocated Sh43 million for the construction of ablution blocks in ECDE centres while Sh5.8 million would be used to purchase teaching and learning equipment for ECDE centres.
In a related development, the County Government of Kericho recently distributed textbooks worth Sh13 million to ECDE centres in the county.
Chepkwony said the books were published by the county government in collaboration with publishers in a bid to fill the gap in terms of reading material tailored for the ECDEs.
An international organisation has also donated books worth Sh3 million to 10 ECDEs in Kericho County.
Book Aid International, in conjunction with the Kenya National Library Services Kericho branch, gave the books to ECDEs in six sub-counties.
