Nairobi county bans ECDE graduations over illegal charges

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko during the launch of free milk program for public ECDE centers in Nairobi at Martin Luther Pri School in Makadara, September 14, 2018. /GPS
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko during the launch of free milk program for public ECDE centers in Nairobi at Martin Luther Pri School in Makadara, September 14, 2018. /GPS

Nairobi county government has

banned nursery school 'graduations' as rip-offs and avenues to blackmail and extort from

parents.

Education CEC Janet Ouko on Tuesday derided the schools for charging parents between Sh1,000 and Sh1,500.

She wrote to all public

primary

school

headteachers and managers of the centres against charging the said levies.

Ouko said City Hall has received a lot of complaints from parents yet public schools offer Early Childhood Development Education for free.

"This is against the spirit of free ECDEs which is being implemented by the governor," Ouko said.

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko

had directed that all levies in public ECDE centres be scrapped with immediate effect.

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On June 29, Sonko launched a free ECDE programme in which each pupil in a public school was allocated Sh3,815.

And on September 14, Brookside Dairies partnered with the county government to supply free milk to 17,000 school kids.

The programme was initiated in 229 centres in the city. Pupils will get a packet of milk twice a week

Ouko said the governor plans to unveil

feeding programmes in ECDE centres.

She said Nairobi has 520 ECDE teachers and advised qualified individuals to apply for jobs. The deadline is October 12.

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