Abstract
Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) below 8 years represent an extremely vulnerable population due to growing levels of poverty, HIV/AIDS and socio-economic situation in which they live. This makes Public Nursery Schools (PNS) receive greater attention as places to remedy to decline of family and community based support. Schools provide channels for distribution of essential services such as food, healthcare, clothing, education and psychosocial support. Though the goal of expanding Early Childhood Education (ECE) opportunity for all children is integrated global initiatives such as Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDG), PNS face the burden of fewer resources as the support systems for OVC such as school feeding, health and nutritional care and psychosocial support are linked to Education Finance. Steady provision of funding level ensures that PNS improve wellbeing and learning outcomes of children through whole school interventions. By contrast, deprivation of interventions during the early years results in lifelong deficiencies and disadvantages. The study sought to find out the influence of finance on mainstreaming support for OVC in PNS in Nyeri Central district .The study employed a descriptive survey design with a sample of 19 public nursery schools. Data was collected through questionnaires for head teachers, a nursery school teacher for each school and an interview was conducted with the District Centre for Early Childhood Education (DICECE) programme officer. The study found out that mainstreaming support for OVC was compromised as source of funds were inadequate for OVC support, capacity building for teachers and retention of OVC in schools through, feeding programme, subsidized fees and bursary funds. To avert this crisis, the study recommends that support for OVC should be intensified through increased budgetary allocation and setting up funds earmarked for OVC in PNS.
Highlights
The support of vulnerable children in Early Childhood Education (ECE) is one of the greatest challenges faced in educational transformation as percentage of the influence of the finance on services is higher compared to other factors such as how culture treats Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)(Abebe,2009)Despite significant increase in basic education enrolment, access to quality education remains low in many countries
In the Dakar Framework for Action 2001, developing countries pledged to enhance investments in basic education while rich nations promised to increase aid to ensure that no country committed to Education for all will be thwarted in achievement for Education for All (EFA) by lack of resources (UNESCO,2010). finance remains a major barrier to International Journal of Elementary Education2015; 4(1): 8-15 education as the financing gap is larger than previously through financing school feeding programmes
Support for OVC in education policies has been addressed Though these interventions are supported in educational through removal of school fees primary education tier. and national policies they cannot be reached if there is this has not been the case for Public Nursery Schools (PNS) as the largest insufficient funding and having no plan for reaching share of financing comes from parents and fees charged sufficient funding in future as a adequate education is an almost entirely covers payroll cost for teachers
Summary
The support of vulnerable children in ECE is one of the greatest challenges faced in educational transformation as percentage of the influence of the finance on services is higher compared to other factors such as how culture treats OVC(Abebe,2009)Despite significant increase in basic education enrolment, access to quality education remains low in many countries. In the Southern zone out of 8 schools that responded 5(62.5%) had enrolled [1,2,3,4,5] OVC, 12.5% had [6,7,8,9,10] while 2(25%) had enrolled 1115.Though there is compelling evidence from literature that traditionally in Kenya, OVC are absorbed into the extended family systems (USAID, 2010) it seems that traditional social safety net is under severe threat due to financial strain leading to incapability of the families to cater for the needs of OVC This is evidenced in the study by the high number of OVC enrolled5(33%) schools enrolling [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] OVC which rationalizes the need to provide funds to facilitate support for OVC to access education. The decision to support OVC was left in the hands of head teachers in the schools
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