Counties have let down our children down

The 2010 Constitution is touted as one of the most progressive of it’s kind globally. However, some parts of this document need to be re-examined. We see the mess that is the health sector. This is only visible because of the direct role it has on virtually the whole society.

Many other sectors under the county government are not fairing any better. Take the case of agriculture. In many counties, nothing much has been done by the county governments. The worse hit, however, is early childhood education and development. Here the governments’ focus has been in poorly built, cost-inflated infrastructure.

A keen observer of what goes on in the county government’s operations will attest to the fact that most of these governments are keen in what they will get from the deals made. The canker of corruption has a rosy bed in many of them. What makes matters worse is the quality of the governors. Most lack rudimentary skills and knowledge on how to run the entities they have been given. Some can barely communicate in English. If this is a problem, what about writing? And can they read and understand what they are reading?

And this is where the problem begins. In the 21st century in an information age dominated by emotional intelligence and soft skills, how do you entrust a critical level in schooling to ill-educated, corrupt and inept individuals? We know prioritisation of development is at the whim of the chief executive and pliant county assemblies.

From what we have been treated to by the members of the county assemblies, can a rational individual vouch for them on matters education? Are they not like their siblings at the national level, driven by avarice and other selfish interests?

I have been fortunate to visit many ECD centres across our country. I have also heard a chance to talk to the teachers and other care-givers. Through my observations and discussions, I have reached one verdict—the status of ECD is poor and it’s high time the national government took over. Why have I reached such a verdict?

First, most of the so-called classes are not conducive for learning. Some of them are congested and children can’t sit around a table as recommended. Now that one of the skills in the competency-based curriculum (CBC) touches on co-operation, how can a teacher facilitate the learner to develop this competence? What further complicates this matter is the high enrolment which makes nonsense of the acceptable teacher-learner ratio.

Most ECDs teachers under the county government are very demotivated. The teachers are paid low salaries which often delays.

Demotivated teachers

They lack a scheme of service, no union to negotiate with their employers to improve their welfare and as I have stated their working conditions are deplorable.

These are the people you entrust your child to in this age when some private schools have well motivated teachers. Indeed, ECD teachers in countries like Finland, Germany and Singapore are among the best paid professionals there. Can teachers in the employ of the county governments help produce global citizens, which is one of the core competencies in the CBC? I doubt. These teachers need to be given a salary with a human face and have their work conditions improved.

How many county bosses have higher educational qualifications in early childhood education? The truth is there are few such personnel with requisite skills, knowledge and values to help the poorly paid and demotivated teachers.

This is unfortunate considering the fact that most of the teachers have certificates, diplomas and even degrees in early childhood education. They are thus knowledgeable in the area than their bosses at the county government!

Learning in the early years requires a variety of instructional resources. These should be both traditional and modern educational media resources. Unfortunately, the resources available are inadequate. Things are made worse by the demand for digital resources which are essential in the CBC. Besides being a resource, they also help in the development of digital literacy, one of the competencies.

The classes should also be festooned with learning resources and well developed learning areas. This means the children in the county-managed schools are being denied what every child in the foundation years should benefit from.

As country, we need to revisit the management of ECDE. This tier of learning should be managed by the national government. Moreover both pre-primary and grades 1 to 3 are under the early years level.

The children at the two tiers at this level have common characteristics and should be taught in identical ways. We should not let the mess that is the county governments to mess up with the learning of our children. In the interim, we should address the pitfalls that dominate the landscape of our ECDE centres.

Dr Ndaloh is a curriculum and teaching expert at Moi University. ndaloagumba@yahoo.com