A section of education stakeholders from Garissa and Tana River counties have undergone a three-day training on the management of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE), Meals Programme, which seeks to improve enrolment and retention of learners in early childhood development centers and in the lower primary schools.
The training on ECDE School Feeding Programme also set out guidelines for the provision of food to ECD centres.
The programme, which is sponsored by the World Food Programme (WFP), imparted trainees on the nutrition interventions that would increase access to meals and improve dietary diversity in the ECDE centres.
The County Government of Garissa had enacted Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) and Early Childhood Meals Programme (EMP), policies to boost nutrition and enrolment in the ECDE and primary school.
The new statute was also meant to tackle the challenge and reluctance of parents taking their children to school instead of having them look after livestock.
The feeding program is also intended to cushion learners from poor families against malnutrition, as a spillover adverse effect of the perennial droughts and economic hardships.
Malnutrition affects over 26 per cent of school-going children in Kenya and contributes to immediate and long-term adverse consequences for development and health (Unicef, 2020).
Tana River County Education Executive (CECM), Abas Kunyo, Garissa County Deputy Director of Education, Ahmed Adan, senior WFP officials and ECDE Sub-county Coordinators from Tana River and Garissa counties were in attendance.
By Erick Kyalo
