Current News

County breaks record with construction of 320 ECDs since 2013

By May 26, 2019 No Comments

In comparison with other counties in the region, Elgeyo Marakwet County has made great strides in the establishment of Early Childhood Development (ECD) education centres across the County.

In addition, despite the centres being twin classrooms with offices for teachers, the County has managed to build them at reasonable costs compared to other counties that have built them at Ksh 6 million and above for just one classroom. This is double what Elgeyo Marakwet uses to construct the centres.

All the ECDs have also been equipped with furniture while pit latrines for both boys and girls is part of the ECD projects.

The CEC Incharge of Education, Mr Edwin Kisang said achievements in ECD education can be measured in terms of increased access, equity, quality and relevance.

“These have been enhanced through infrastructural development, supply of learning materials and recruitment and training of ECDE personnel. Since 2013 todate, we managed to construct 320 twin ECD classrooms across all the wards and four single classrooms in Chebulbul ECD in Chepkorio, Kapchorwa in Metkei, Emkong in Tambach and Cheptulon. Of this 280, are complete while 40 are under construction.” said Kisang.

As a result of the County intervention, the number of ECDs increased from 392 in 2013 to 500 in 2018 out of which 432 are attached to primary schools and 68 are standalone feeder centres.

“Enrolment has been increasing steadily from 26,800 in 2013 to 34,120 in 2017 and 31,503 in 2018 after the removal of baby class from pre-school system,” added the CEC.

The employment of 374 ECDE teachers in 2014 and 404 in 2017 is a big achievement in the staffing of the Centres and easing the pressure off parents. Before this was done by the County Government, all teachers had been employed by parents.

“We strive to supply instructional materials every year but in most cases these materials are inadequate due to limited funds allocated by wards while some do not allocate any funds hence missing the materials every year,” regretted Kisang.

To ensure relevance in learning, all ECD personnel in the County were trained on the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and each ECD centre supplied with two volumes of curriculum designs required for the implementation of the new curriculum.

In its other mandate in Education, the County was able to develop 11 registered Vocational Training Centres (VTCs) with an additional three having been established. In these VTCs, enrolment was 925 before devolution but currently, there are 1,422 trainees, representing a 53.72 % increase.

“We improved the infrastructure in the VTCs by building five twin workshops, five classroom, nine dormitories and purchased equipment for the centres. We also employed additional 38 instructors bringing to their total number to 59 deployed across the 11 VTCs,” said the CEC.

The number of candidates presented and passing NITA and KNEC examination has increased from 397 in 2013 to 620 trainees in 2018 representing a 56.17 % increase of those completing training and certified.