• Lawmaker says bill will improve the quality of early childhood education that has been neglected
• Senate urged to support the bill when it gets to the House to ensure a firm educational foundation
A bill by Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege seeks to have early childhood education and development teachers hired by the Teachers Service Commission.
Chege on Saturday said the bill will improve the quality of ECDE, which, she added, has been neglected for far too long.
The lawmaker said the competency-based curriculum has established pre-primary 1 and 2, hence creating confusion on who will employ ECDE teachers under the new arrangement.
She said only ECDE centres and polytechnics are managed by the counties and that puts them at a disadvantage.
The proposed law will ensure TSC takes up recruitment, while county governments will only focus on infrastructure.
“The county governments will be required to construct classrooms that will create a friendly learning environment,” Chege said.
It's unreasonable to support education from Grade 1, while neglecting the foundation, which is key to a child’s development, she added.
The ECDE centres had also been locked out of free primary school funds from the national government, and most of them are in deplorable conditions.
Chege said measures must be put in place to fix the problems.
“How do we expect to have children in Grade 1 whom we've not supported from the lower level?” she asked.
She urged the Senate to support the bill when it gets to the House to ensure a firm educational foundation.
The legislator spoke during a prizegiving day at Kahuhia Girls High School, which also celebrated its 60th anniversary.
County commissioner Mohamed Barre said the digital literacy programme has lagged behind in Murang'a. The implementation has only covered 50 per cent and some schools have not been using the tablets for fear of theft, he said.
He urged teachers to use the gadgets without fear, saying they will give all pupils an equal opportunity to excel in their studies and improve their education.
On Wednesday last week, the National Assembly ICT committee toured several schools in the county to inspect the progress of the programme.
Chairman William Kipsang said the government will establish computer labs in all primary schools in the next financial year. They will enable pupils to interact with the devices so all can benefit. Currently, only those in the lower classes use them.
The labs will give all pupils an opportunity to interact with the gadgets as opposed to the current arrangement that only benefits lower primary pupils.
“We will allocate between Sh800,000 and Sh1 million per school to cater for the infrastructure,” Kipsang said.
More funds will also be allocated to the two factories that produce the gadgets at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Moi University to produce more to end shortages.
The Energy ministry will ensure all schools have power, while the ICT Authority will provide internet connectivity.
(Edited by F'Orieny)