Knut takes on governors in ECDE takeover standoff

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has criticised governors for resisting the takeover of Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centres by the national government, urging the county chiefs to put the interests of children first.

Knut Secretary-General Collins Oyuu said the Council of Governors (CoG) does not have skilled personnel in counties to manage ECDEs, especially in quality assurance.

He urged the governors to allow ECDEs to be managed by the national government, in line with recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER), which proposed the creation of comprehensive schools.

The PWPER report suggested that basic education should begin at pre-primary and end at senior school, giving power to primary school heads to run ECDEs, primary and junior schools, which have collectively been renamed comprehensive schools. It proposed the repealing the Early Childhood Education Act to bring early childhood education under the Basic Education Act.

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ECDE centres have been under county governments since the dawn of devolution, with CoG chairperson Anne Waiguru saying the institutions belong to the devolved units.

But, in an interview with the Nation, Mr Oyuu said devolving ECDE was a mistake. He termed ECDE as the foundation of basic education and that the recommendations by the PWPER should be implemented in full.

The CoG is set to meet national government officials on Friday over the stalemate.

Governors Abdulswamad Nassir (Mombasa) and Gideon Mung’aro (Kilifi) said their respective administrations have put significant efforts to boost ECDEs.

“But we must delineate the management of primary and pre-primary schools. We should know who manages what. My mandate is to look after the nursery learners. But the matter will be addressed this coming Friday,” said Mr Nassir. He added that, once the matter is resolved and management of the institutions is devolved, children in Mombasa will go to ECDE centres for free.

Governors have also proposed a meeting with the PWPER, which is chaired by Prof Raphael Munavu,to review the contentious clauses on the management of ECDEs.

CoG Education Committee chairman and Kericho Governor Erick Mutai said the ECDE function was devolved but not costed and, as such, money was not released to the counties for the function.

“We have done costing at Sh5 billion annually, which should be channelled to counties for the running of ECDE centres,” Dr Mutai said. “Before devolution, churches established and ran ECDE centres in makeshift structures, before the counties took over and built proper structures, equipped them, employed teachers and offered meals to the children to retain them and address nutritional challenges,” Dr Mutai added.

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He was speaking on Saturday in Bomet during a function to disburse bursaries to schools. He said attempts to roll back on the gains made by devolution were launched during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration and should not be extended to President William Ruto’s government.

“Up to 2018, there were conditional grant of Sh3 billion offered to counties to support vocational training centres, which was withdrawn by [Mr Kenyatta]. We do not want the same to happen with the ECDE centres” Dr Mutai said. He lauded former CoG Chairman Isaac Ruto for fighting for devolution.

“Today we celebrate Mr Ruto for his steadfastness on devolution while serving as Bomet governor and a two-term CoG chairman. We would not be where we are today as counties had he not stood firm and fought off efforts to fight counties and reverse devolved functions,” Dr Mutai said.

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang, his Bomet counterpart Hillary Barchok and Siaya’s James Orengo said in Kericho that the council was willing to sit with the PWPER to discuss contentious issues.

“We have expressed our displeasure ... and we want to sit down and discuss the areas of contention in the management of ECDEs,” Mr Sang said. Prof Barchok said counties had spent a lot of resources on developing infrastructure in ECDE centres and employed thousands of teachers.

“We have made a lot of strides in putting in place structures in the learning institutions and dignifying work of the teachers in the centres. It is not proper that we can build a sector from scratch that had been neglected since independence and let it go just like that,” Prof Barchok said.

The governors vowed to fight off attempts to return the management of critical sectors such as education, water and health to the national government.