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"id": 207361,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/207361/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
"slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. So, I was saying that the serious hinderance for us is limitation of resources, but a great deal is already being done. We hope this policy will target four to five-year-old children because this is a very critical stage. It is going to be comprehensive in that we would like to incorporate early childhood education within the mainstream education system such that it is not seen as separate and heading towards what hon. Members were suggesting namely having an early childhood education centre in every primary school. I have already spoken about the policy that has been formulated. I have spoken about the guidelines that we have put in place to ensure that there are standards. I would also like to indicate that we have spent quite a bit of resources on the supervision and curriculum design for early childhood education. We have established the National Centre for Early Childhood Education at Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) that has been supported by a number of partners outside the Ministry of Education. Many of these partners are also joining us to ensure that we give prominence to that aspect of education. We have a programme for in-service teachers who teach in early childhood education centres. We do appreciate that we have not been able to pay them as well we would like. However, every effort is being made again to ensure that these teachers get the professional and other support that they need to have the commitment to early childhood education centres. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this connection, realising that it is quite an expensive enterprise and in view of the fact that the Ministry is spending in other subsectors of education, we are trying our best to mobilise resources from other partners outside the World Bank that are supporting the early childhood education centre and other development partners. We also hope that we will get the support of Members of Parliament. Some of them have already been supporting this idea by starting early childhood centres in their respective constituencies and so on. However, it is essentially a mobilisation of all the resources that are available that will make the biggest difference because we have always said the Ministry of Education and the resources that are available are very much in demand for the primary and secondary education as well as university. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have a two-year in-service programme for early childhood education teachers. They are called from time to time during their holidays to take advantage of this training. There is also a nine-month training programme for trainers of early childhood education teachers. So, we first begin by training those who train the teachers for nine months and then we train the teachers that are already registered to teach in those institutions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in terms of syllabus, it is not just the early childhood education syllabus that has been developed, but we are also incorporating this in teacher-training colleges, so that our teachers that come out of them are able to address issues of early childhood education just as they are able to deal with issues of the six-year-olds to 14-years-old. We would like to have a teacher who is complete, especially in view of the fact that early childhood education teacher will teach within a context of a primary school that is comprehensive and does not separate early childhood education from the primary education system. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are doing much to enhance the capacity of supervisors. They, as well as other personnel who are involved in early childhood education, are also receiving regular training. We are also equipping the National Centre for Early Childhood Education as well as the districts, where we have units. In every district, we have a District Early 3352 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 22, 2007 Childhood Education Centre that is being supported by way of officers. We have programme officers in the districts. We provide transportation facilities, so that they can visit the schools. We also give them an opportunity to upgrade their skills from time to time, so that they are better supervisors and implementors of the policies relating to early childhood education. The issue of teachers is a sensitive one. It is a serious issue because we do not only have enough teachers for those institutions but also because it seems like those teachers are treated like second-class teachers, compared to the other teachers. So, we hope that, as we resolve the overall problem of teacher shortage in this country, we will also be able to employ teachers whose brief will not just be work in primary schools but will also be able to teach in early childhood education institutions, because they will have received training. We are getting there. There still remains a shortage but we are making improvement in terms of reducing that gap, given that this year already, we are going to employ 11,000 teachers, compared to previous years when we have employed 7,000. So, depending on how our economy performs, we hope that we able, next year, to recruit even more teachers, probably, in the range of 20,000 teachers. As we get there, we will also have teachers who will be used to support early childhood education, along with other levels of education. As we support this programme, we need to be careful that parents do not completely shun the responsibility of taking care of their children. We need to continue supporting the programme and encouraging parents to be part and parcel of the programme, because education is not just about school; it is also about at home. We need to co-ordinate the various efforts. We need to have serious early childhood education centres, which are comprehensive in terms of the facilities they offer. We need to have proper day care centres, so that when children go to those institutions, they feel interested and motivated. They should be in an environment that is supportive not just of learning academic subjects but also in terms of any other values that we would like young people---"
}