Nairobi ECDE centres have been handed a huge boost after Governor Johnson Sakaja launched a Sh100 million grant for learners.
This is aimed at doubling the ECDE centres in Nairobi from 30,000 to 60,000 within the year.
On Tuesday, Sakaja said that the funds will be managed by the ECDEs boards of management.
“A total of Sh100 million will be set aside for the boards of these schools to use according to the guidelines already agreed and in force,” he said.
Sakaja was speaking during the launch of the grants at Charter Hall.
Currently, Nairobi has 30,000 pupils in its public pre-primary schools.
From the Sh100 million, each pupil will have Sh3,200 shillings set aside.
Governor added that with his administration aiming to double the number of children benefiting from the ECDE programmes, more investment will be necessary.
“In the last few years, we have seen steady enrollment growth, from just 13,000 to as high as 30,000 learners. This is good, but in a city of nearly five million people, it is nowhere near enough, ” Sakaja said.
As of 2021, Nairobi had about 25,000 pre-primary school learners in the 232 ECDE centres with City Hall paying Sh3,200 for each child and Sh3,300 for those with special needs.
A report from the education department in 2019 showed that Nairobi had 229 public ECDE centres.
The county government has in the past three years implemented strategies to make ECDE centres accessible to all pupils.
In 2018, the county scrapped all ECDEs levies and launched a free preschool programme. Each child was allocated a capitation of Sh3,815.
The move was meant to ensure children enjoy access to good elementary education irrespective of where they were born.
The programme was expected to increase enrollment from the current 15,295 children to about 17,000 children by the close of that year.
However, the targets were surpassed. As of April 2019, 19,618 children had been enrolled in the ECDE centres.
In the 2019-20 financial year, the county banned ECDE graduation ceremonies in all public schools across the county on the grounds that parents were being fleeced.