Efforts by the Kiambu county Government to increase enrolment and retention of children in the early childhood education programme received a boost following the construction of 130 new Early Childhood Development (ECDE) centres.
The groundbreaking ceremony was led by the area Governor Kimani Wamatangi at Kasarini Primary School in Kiambu Sub County.
According to Wamatangi the centres will consist of twin classrooms (PP1/PP2), an office in the middle, an ablution block, and a play space for the kids.
“Today marks the beginning of phase one of these projects where we will be constructing about 130 (ECDE) centers at a cost of Sh400 million, each estimated to cost a total of Sh 3.5 million” said Wamatangi
The county boss added that the project will take three financial years to be fully completed in all 524 ECDE centres present in the county
“A child inception to school is through an ECDE centre it is therefore our responsibility to ensure that they have proper infrastructure so that we can retain them in these centers which are very crucial in beginners’ education,” he said.
Wamatangi further stated that the construction of the new ECDE centres goes concurrently with the County feeding programme for ECDEs where kids are provided with a bowl of nutritious porridge every day and three eggs per week in all public centres
“We are putting up measures to ensure that these ECDE programmes are sustainable even after we have left office, this we have done by including it in the pending ECDE bill, which awaits to be passed by the County Assembly members,” Wamatangi said.
The Acting CECM for Education Wilfred Mwenda lauded the project saying the construction of the new ECDE centres is necessary since they expect an increment in enrollment due to the feeding programme that has already been rolled out.
“ECDE centers have reported a huge increase in enrollment since the feeding program started last term, we therefore expect the number to continue going up hence the need to construct new ECDE centres to cope with enrolments” said Mwenda
By Grace Naishoo
