Basic Education from Early Childhood: Impacts of Free Primary Education and Subsidized Secondary Education on Public ECDE Centers in Nyahururu District, Kenya.

Abstract

Kenya must invest more in education to realize her vision 2030. The government commitment to Education for All’s goal has been expressed through provision of basic education in pre-primary, primary and secondary school levels. To this end, the government introduced two kitties; Free Primary Education in 2003 and Subsidized Secondary Education in 2008 (where the government paid tuition fees for the students in secondary schools), but left parents to finance Early Childhood Development and Education. Since public centers were not well equipped, only the poor parents enrolled their children. The study was carried out in Nyahururu District in 2010, to assess the impacts of the two government kitties on public Early Childhood Development and Education centers in Kenya. To evaluate the impact of the kitties on the public Early Childhood Development and Education centers, private centers were also studied together. The study revealed that while the kitties led to rising enrolment in primary, secondary school and private Early Childhood Development and Education centers, enrolment declined in public centers. The two have lowered the quality of education in public Early Childhood Development and Education centers since parents were unwilling to raise finances enough to employ and motivate teachers, buy teaching/learning resources, school facilities and school feeding program. High enrolment after Free Primary Education also took up classrooms meant for Early Childhood Development and Education in public centers.