The county Government of Busia has approved the construction of 175 Early Childhood Development Education centers in the next three months to address the classroom shortage that exists in the county.
Speaking after the county executive meeting at his Office, Governor Paul Otuoma said the construction of the classrooms will help to provide a good learning environment to the young children in the county.
“We have more than 50,000 children spread across 460 ECDE centers in our county. Some of these classrooms are not in a good state that’s why we have made a decision to construct 5 ECDE centers in each of our 35 wards in the county in the next 3 months.
The governor blamed the financial constraints experienced by the counties as a hindrance towards development, promising to prioritize the ECDE section in the 2025-2026 financial year.
“Looking at the number of these children and the required number of pupils per class, it shows the need of having more classes but due to the financial constraints, we are unable to do it. We want to ensure that in the next financial year we prioritize the construction of more classes because the foundation of the academic journey of a child is at the ECD.
Otuoma further noted that the project will be managed by the committee of a school to ensure proper management and accountability.
“These projects will be supervised and managed by the schools’ project management committees which have all the stakeholders. This committee will ensure the projects have been undertaken as expected. This will help to ensure there is proper accountability. We are also encouraging them to ensure that all the raw material and labor is sourced from the locals so that they can also benefit from the projects,’ he said.
The county boss noted that upon completion of the project, there will be an improvement in school attendance and a proper learning environment for the young children in the county.
“We are also committed to ensure that the existing centers are well equipped with essential learning materials so that the young ones get good education” added the governor.
He also lauded the school feeding program that was launched last year which he said will complement the ECDE initiative as it will help to improve nutrition of the children, hence increase enrolment and retention of the learners in the school.
Poor nutrition has remained one of the challenges in the county. According to the UNICEF report, the county has a problem of stunted growth which stands at 15 percent.
By Rodgers Omondi andSalome Alwanda
