Governor Sakaja Allocates 100m for ECDE Education

To ensure ECDE education is free in Nairobi County, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has unveiled sh100mn for utilization on this program for Nairobi County Children.

Speaking yesterday during the launch, Sakaja said the aim is to double the number of children enrolled in public ECDE in Nairobi from 30,000 to 60,000 within the year; and then to grow as quickly as possible after that.

“We start today with 30,000 pupils in our public pre-primary schools. Each will have 3,200 shillings set aside,” he said.

“A total of KShs 100 million will be set aside for the boards of these schools to use according to the guidelines already agreed and in force.”

In addition, this program will see the construction of an additional 5,000 classrooms in partnership with the National government which will construct 3,500 and 1,500 by the county.

“We allocated Ksh100 million for the construction and rehabilitation of ECDs and vocational training centres,” he added.

Sakaja said the county government will continue to recruit new ECDE teachers so that they can make up the numbers they need for the policy’s success.

In June, Sakaja unveiled a sh1.2 bn food subsidy program that is set to benefit 250,000 children in public schools and ECDEs in the county in a program dubbed Dishi na County.

Explaining how the program will work, Sakaja said there will be central kitchens within Nairobi for the school feeding program.

The Governor indicated that the Kitchens will be constructed in Dagoretti North, Embakasi Central, Embakasi South, Kasarani, Kibra, Makadara, Starehe, Roysamu, Ruaraka, and Westlands Sub-counties starting tomorrow.
“Nutritious meals will be cooked in these central kitchens and the meals transported in special sealed containers and special vehicles to keep the meals safe from contamination, and keep them warm, to surrounding schools,” he said.

Each kitchen is expected to produce about 10,000 nutritional meals daily. The governor noted that parents will pay sh5 for each learner daily while the County Government of Nairobi will cater for the other costs.