Empowerment
The Tharaka Nithi County Government has put in resources to the education foundation to enhance learning experiences for children in public schools.
Through a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of Pre-School Intervention on Child Learning and Women’s Economic Empowerment, the county government has recruited 60 Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers in 60 schools in Tharaka Nithi in the adoption of 3-year-old children into pre-school study in an effort to enhance early childhood education research and policy.
While hosting a delegation from Kenyatta University at the County Headquarters in Kathwana for a review and assessment of the program, Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki noted that the county was identified as a conducive ground to carry out the experiment brought about by the construction of a Crèche at Chuka market meant to address the issue of mothers who leave their businesses to take care of their young ones.
“Kenyatta University in collaboration with the Government of Kenya, University of West Indies and Yale University with support from the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation decided to conduct an experiment on exactly what would work best after realizing mothers with children who are less than 3 years of age could not afford child care in terms of hiring house helps and they have to take care of the children since they are not yet of school-going age”, he said.
According to Njuki, 120 schools in the county were selected for the program, 60 being controlled and the other 60 as part of the sample which were given materials to learn and teachers who were qualified to teach them.
“We have taken children who are 3 years of age to school as an experiment to find out if they can be able to learn like the others which is going to relieve mothers to carry out their businesses and be productive. This assessment is going to brief us on whether we are succeeding or not and so far, we are happy to report that the program is going on well”, he remarked.
Kenyatta University Women Economic Empowerment Hub Lead Prof. Judith Waudo said the program had two types of interventions, mainly curriculum and measurements where the team had to develop a special curriculum and lesson plan as well as develop a child protection policy.
In addition, the program had to work on production of material, where all materials produced for the 60 schools were produced by Jua Kali enterprises within Tharaka Nithi County. The experiment also incorporates 15 mentors, 4 research assistants in charge of measurements and an observation lead.
“We hope to recruit another cohort in December to compare performance and see the progress of the program. Our overall outcome is women economic empowerment and that the project is scaled up in the county and other counties where we have already developed interest”, she said.
Prof. James Biu Kung’u who is the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academics at Kenyatta University reiterated the high commitment by the County Government of Tharaka Nithi in ensuring the success of the project through making resources available.
“We have a lot of positive feedback from the participating schools, and we appreciate the support and hard work that the field team has put in place to implement the program and we hope to continue this path to see that the project works and is scaled up across Africa”, Dr. Tarja Francis, representing the University of West Indies noted.
The County Government is working to achieve transition of the children from PP1 to PP2.