The Uasin Gishu County government has partnered with the Education Empowerment for Rural and Urban Slum Initiative to build the professional capacity of over 1,400 Early Childhood Development teachers and to establish new childcare centres.
The MoU, signed in Eldoret, will facilitate the rollout of capacity-building programmes and the establishment of “childcare centers of excellence” across the county. It also provides for the training of all teachers in the 684 ECD centers.
Education CEC Lucy Ng’endo said the collaboration aims to develop and implement comprehensive training and capacity-building programmes for ECD teachers and childcare providers.
“This partnership with EERUI will ensure that children in our learning centres have access to health initiatives and that public spaces, including markets, are provided with childcare centres of excellence to serve as benchmarks for quality education and childcare services,” she said.
Ng’endo said the administration is committed to ensuring children receive quality education and care, adding that the county is ready to work with stakeholders who can support such initiatives.
Chief officer for Education, Eunice Suter noted that the Department of education will greatly benefit as it rolls out the digitisation of learning in ECD centres and establishes competitive centres of excellence to meet the demands of Competency-Based Education.
“This is in line with Governor Jonathan Bii’s vision of implementing e-learning in all ECD centres,” she stated.
Steve Muasya, programme manager at EERUI, said the partnership will implement comprehensive capacity-building programmes to enhance the quality of childcare services, strengthen entrepreneurial skills for sustainable business models and equip providers with the tools to create safe, nurturing, and stimulating environments for children.
Enrolment in ECD schools in the county has increased by more than 10 per cent, particularly after the governor introduced a free milk feeding programme two years ago.
Before the launch, ECD units had about 40,000 learners, but an additional 4,000 pupils have since joined.
The governor, popularly known as ‘Koti Moja’, said the programme, which supplies “Maziwa ya Koti” every Tuesday and Thursday, has benefited learners in 676 centres across the county.
BY MATHEWS NDANYI
