The County Government of Kakamega has made strides in improving the Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) by employing 216 more teachers across the County.
Speaking during the induction of the newly employed teachers, the County Executive Committee Member for Education (CECM), George Akolo Lutomia, said the recruited teachers are qualified and well trained to handle children.
“We have partnered with World Vision to impart new knowledge and skills to the teachers and the emerging trends in education as most teachers were trained a long time ago,” he said.
During the induction held at Kakamega Golf Hotel, the teachers were also trained on child play roles and feeding programs, Lutomia noted that World Vision will continue to train the ECDE teachers.
“The teachers will be impacted with skills on how to take care of 0-6 year children, and also how they will nurture their nutrition and show them how they can child-play amongst themselves before they move to grade one,” Lutomia said.
The CEC mentioned that every Sub-county has Program Officers, Ward Coordinators and CBC Champions who will continue to nurture the teachers on how to tackle the CBC lessons.
Lutomia revealed that all the ECDE teachers who will be deployed to different schools are trained diploma and degree holders.
“We look forward to training and bringing on board all the 2016 teachers across the country to benefit from our devolved assignment of ECDE and polytechnics,” he said.
He disclosed that Kakamega County has 107 public ECDE centers, and that they are constructing two classrooms and a staffroom in each school, and every year the county purchases furniture worth 54million for the ECD centers across the 12 Sub-counties.
CEC said that they have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB), which provides reading and learning materials for the learners.
He added that they have also allocated Sh. 1,000 per child to cater for any other additional equipment needed and also pay the teachers on Board of Management (BOM).
Lutomia emphasized that ECDE education in Kakamega County is free, except that the parent has to buy uniforms and provide meals.
The CEC decried the high cost of feeding program as the county has 240,000 ECDE children with most centers holding over 100 children.
He revealed that the County has allocated a budget for the food program, and will also work closely with organizations such as save the children international and UNICEF to help solve the food program challenge.
“We are also constructing a milk factory in Malava that will supply milk in schools to ensure children get nutritious meal” said Lutomia
By Margaret Andeso
