- The county has 673 ECDE centres, of which 660 are anchored in primary schools while 13 are stand-alone institutions.
- Nyong’o said the public ECDE centres have a total enrollment of 51,408 children in the seven subcounties.
Image: MAURICE ALAL
The Kisumu county government has scaled up its feeding programme to ensure 100 per cent retention of children in school.
Governor Anyang Nyong’o said in the financial year 2020-2021, the county government distributed food to all the Early Child Development and Education (ECDE) centres and fed 50,000 learners.
The county has 673 ECDE centres, of which 660 are anchored in primary schools while 13 are stand-alone institutions.
Nyong’o said the public ECDE centres have a total enrollment of 51,408 children in the seven subcounties. He spoke on Thursday during the state of the county address in the Kisumu county assembly.
The governor said out of these, 25,266 are girls and 26,142 are boys. Nyakach subcounty has the highest number of ECDE children at 11,369 while Kisumu Central has the least at 3,207.
Nyong’o said in the last financial year, the pre-primary programme focused on delivering his mandate through access to free, quality and safe ECDE services.
Under the Constitution 2010, he said, the Fourth Schedule spells out the responsibilities of the two levels of government.
The Constitution has apportioned the county governments’ responsibilities that touch directly on the people such as health, water, environment or education.
“I am especially elated that our education responsibilities are for molding citizens of the future at ECDE and building producers of manpower that will drive government economy at technical and vocational education training level,” he said.
In addition, Nyong’o said in the financial year 2020-2021, his administration distributed Sh205 million in bursaries and scholarships to needy students in high schools and colleges across the county.
“Scholarships and bursaries beneficiaries in the year were 1,260 and 36,259 respectively spread across all the 35 civic wards,” he added.
The governor noted that the beneficiaries increased from 33,403 in 2019-2020 to 36,259 in 2020-2021, which translates to a nine per cent growth.
“That is why we must do more to ensure that our investments in those two core areas deliver the desired results,” Nyong’o said.
He said his government has resolved to start giving bursaries to those seeking to study marine courses at the recently built marine school in Kisumu.
Nyong’o said over the four years his administration has been steadfast in strengthening the devolved mandate by building infrastructure at the two levels and equipping them.
This, he said, will help the county to produce market-ready professionals and strong minds that can graduate to the next level of education.
“I want to recognize the efforts of county first lady Dorothy Nyong’o for championing the strengthening of inclusive ECDEs where parents can continue to play a crucial role in the growth of the young ones even during school hours,” he said.
Despite higher levels of education being the preserve of the national government, Nyong’o said they are alive to the fact that the students in those schools are still their responsibility as county governments.
“It is for this reason that we have continued to grow our bursary and scholarship portfolios to broaden the numbers of beneficiaries,” he said.
Edited by Henry Makori