NGAIRA: Case for scheme of service for ECDE teachers

When we were growing up, the teaching profession was revered. It needed passion, dedication and commitment to be a teacher. One could term it a calling.

Being a teacher for early learners gives one this feeling and makes one re-trace their steps to the days they first stepped into a classroom.

Early Childhood Development Education can be classified as a calling because one needs dedication and passion to handle the little angels that parents entrusted with the teachers.

However, this cadre of teachers is also one of the most neglected in our society. Prior to the promulgation of the current constitution in 2010, ECDEs were under the Ministry of Education. But this changed with the advent of devolution as they were handed to the county governments.

This was a major setback because the history of early childhood education in Kenya is replete with hits and misses. Many will recall that these institutions were scattered all over with some domiciled in faith institutions, primary schools and those lucky enough were stand-alones.

This complicates infrastructure investment and the allocation of resources such as building age-appropriate classrooms and toilets, leading to a disagreement over who is responsible for hiring teachers or even how much they should earn.

While the provision of ECDE was passed to counties in 2013 as part of the new constitutional arrangements set out under devolution, it was not matched with clear quality standards and policy approaches over how these responsibilities should be carried out.

Neither was it matched with resources as budgetary allocations shrunk when these institutions were consolidated together with Technical and Vocational Training institutions.

The crux of the matter however remains the ratio of teachers to pupils. While the Teachers Service Commission had the role of recruiting ECDE teachers prior to the enactment of the 2010 Constitution, counties have miserably failed in exercising this responsibility. It is no surprise that a walk to any ECDE in the country will find a huge disparity in teacher to early learners ratio.

This is further cemented by the fact that few counties have a working scheme for this cadre of teachers and therefore no salary scheme for them. They end up being paid haphazardly.

How many parents give a thought to the teachers who handle this category of learners who can’t tell the difference between head and tail when they first step into a classroom?

During the just-concluded electioneering period, teachers' unions and associations were wooed by the two competing coalitions. None of the associations lured teachers in the ECDE category.

Parents should take a keen interest in how ECDEs are run by their respective counties because they are critical to the development of their children’s education.

According to research by Theirworld, a global charity organisation that rallies governments to advance the interests of children and women, children’s participation in ECDE is found to improve long-term cognitive and socioeconomic skills, improving labour market outcomes. Participation also builds confidence in openness, grit, patience and workplace skill use.

The research by the charity further indicates that ECDE improves life chances, with 47 per cent of children (globally) who attend high-quality ECDE finding skilled employment later in life compared to the 27 per cent who don’t attend

“Investing in early childhood education delivers significant economic returns resulting in gains for families, communities and economies. In sub-Saharan Africa it has been estimated that for every dollar spent towards tripling pre-primary education enrolment would yield a $33 return on investment,” the research further says

Theirworld has been pushing county governments to invest at least 10 per cent of their education budgets on early childhood education as a commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and ensure all children across Kenya and indeed the world receive two years of quality pre-primary education by 2030.

An analysis of budget data by Unicef in the Eastern Africa region has identified that Kenya has the lowest investment in pre-primary education at just 1.8 per cent of its education budget compared to Rwanda (7.7 per cent), Tanzania (six per cent), Zimbabwe (Two per cent) and Ethiopia (1.9 per cent).

The theme for this year’s World Teachers Day is appropriately titled 'The transformation of education begins with teachers'.

No one has worked their fingers off like teachers to finally get our education back on track after the Covid-19 pandemic while overseeing the transition from the 8-4-4 system to the new Competency Based Curriculum. Since the resumption of schools last year, teachers have fastidiously sought to have everything back on track.

In 2021, teachers hardly rested in their bid to catch up with the syllabus, especially for the Std 8 and Form 4 candidates this year, the school calendar was squeezed into four terms.

Thanks to the efforts of the teachers, come January 2023, our school calendar will be fully back on track with scheduled breaks, a confirmation that the transformation of our education begins with teachers and that they are at the heart of education recovery.

ECDE teachers are often recruited randomly depending on the whims of those running education dockets in each of the 47 counties. One would have expected the Council of Governors to have given this matter priority since 2013. But to our surprise, no scheme of service has been devised to mitigate the challenges ECDE teachers face.

As teachers worldwide commemorate their big day, a lot is expected from them on transforming the education system in the country.

Early childhood education advocate