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{
    "id": 562242,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/562242/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 213,
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    "content": "that parents go to work and leave their children in these particular centres. However, for the ECDE centres, the age is three to six years and the stipulation has been put in place. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, initially, we had a Basic Education Act from Sessional Paper No. 4 of 2012 which talked about basic education and pre-primary education. It is the one that lumped pre-primary and primary together. Now that more emphasis will go into pre-primary education, the whole idea of contextualizing and focusing on ECDE becomes very critical. This Bill then amends sections of the Education Act to ensure the sections which are not very loud in terms of pre-primary education are clarified. Where, for example, pre-primary education has been mentioned, then they have been amended to be ECDE centres so that there is a linkage between this Bill and the Basic Education Act. We do not expect a child at this stage to sit for examinations and the Bill is very clear on that. Certain tests will be done as a child begins school but it will not be a written exam so that a child fails to be admitted because they did not pass it. This is an exam for teachers to determine at what level this child can join the education system and what their abilities are so that the teachers can guide them to the next level. It is just for grouping them in terms of age, interests, ability to learn and ability to find the right mechanism in terms of giving the right level of education for these children. There is no repeating at ECDE centres. There is absolutely no circumstance where a teacher will say, you are not ready to move to the next level, please go back. The whole issue of repeating has also been dealt with at primary level. A child will not be stopped from moving forward and, therefore, we expect a child joining an ECDE centre to be there from three to six years. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, one of the most important aspects of this Bill is that it focuses on a curriculum which will be anchored in law, with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) being responsible for the development of this curriculum. You will appreciate that now, with the focus on ECDE, we do not want a situation where everybody just comes up with their own curriculum. We want something that at the end of the day, even though we may have diversity across counties in terms of interests, there is something that is overall propelling the education goals that have been set within the country. Therefore, the curriculum and the responsibility of ensuring that this curriculum is put into place sufficiently and that it runs in an orderly manner is the KICD. They will be in charge to ensure that they do this. They will also use policy guidelines and instructions from the Cabinet Secretary (CS) at any one given time. The standards will be approved by them. The next thing that comes into your mind when you talk about standards is quality control. There is no need to put standards and not have a system of quality assurance and control. This Bill puts into place quality assurance measures at the county level by putting in place a Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) that will ensure that standards are adhered to. Accreditation will only be for five years. This means that somebody will not be too comfortable and do things the wrong way just because they have been accredited. Accreditation is for five years and they will be reviewed. Within those five years, if they"
}