Narok County Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) stakeholders have called for concerted efforts to address issues affecting the quality of education in the County.
Speaking Tuesday during the meeting, the County Executive Committee Member in charge of Education, Robert Simotwo called on the stakeholders to enhance their collaboration through establishment of a technical working group that will champion for better quality of education.
Simotwo added that effective collaboration among key stakeholders will improve the quality delivery of education in the County and provide a platform to deal with any emerging issues in the sector.
“Today I urge all our stakeholders to come together through an enhanced technical working group so as to help the County to provide quality education to our children especially those at ECDE level,” said Simotwo.
He encouraged the Community Based Organizations (CBO) that operate in the area to not only focus on primary and secondary education but also put some effort on ECDE as it lays foundation in the children’s education life.
The officer added that the County is working on a plan to launch an ECDE digital literacy program that will help the children acquire computer literacy at a very young age.
At the same time, he observed that the County is still reporting a low rate of enrolment in the ECDE at 78 per cent, meaning there is a large number of aged-children who are yet to join school.
County Chief Officer in charge of Education Simon Kurarur revealed that the County has no ECDE policies, which explains the challenges the department is facing.
“The main cause of the challenges that we are facing right now as Department of ECDE is that we do not have a policy that guides the operation of ECDE in the County,” said Kurarur.
He called on the members of the technical working group to see to it that the County gets a policy that will help in the administration of ECDE in the County as well as to monitor the collaboration of partners in the provision of education.
Kuraru said that a policy is very important as it will help to eliminate duplication of responsibilities by the stakeholders as well as provide a guide on how to deal with children below the age of 5 years.
His sentiments were echoed by Antony Makori from the Department of Education who said that education is a very delicate issue which should be handled with utmost care as it involves shaping the County’s future.
He emphasized that the formation of a technical group of stakeholders is key to the adoption of a County ECDE policy that will shape the activities that involve education.
Makori further called on the two levels of government to facilitate ground for collaboration as the two sectors of education are interdependent with each other.
Narok County has made great strides in the ECDE sector with a number of achievements which has seen the County construct 189 ECDE classes while rolling out digital learning program.
By Ann Salaton and Amos Maina
