BY ANN WANJIKU

Governor Kimani Wamatangi’s administration has embarked on an ambitious program to transform the education sector in the county to enhance access to quality education and improve education standards.

From construction of new model ECDE centres, a feeding program where nursery school pupils enjoy nutritious uji, boiled eggs and fresh milk, increased bursary to revamping Vocational Training Centres (VTC), Kiambu is witnessing a revolution in the education sector as Wamatangi works to fulfill his “Leave No Child Behind” campaign pledge.
Since devolution in 2013, nearly all the county-owned 524 ECDE centres that should serve as children’s foundation and education bedrock have been run-down shacks with earth floors, collapsing rusty roofs, and crumbling walls with gaping holes.
However, Wamatangi is rewriting history by modernizing the ECDE centres by constructing new structures with facilities available in private kindergartens.

The County, through the Department of Education, Gender, Culture and Social Services, is currently working on 180 ECDE centres in various implementation stages, with Governor Wamatangi setting a deadline of 2026 for the completion of the modernization of all 524 ECDE centres.
“First impressions are important because they shape a person’s attitude or behavior towards something. Imagine if the children’s first exposure to schooling is in the dreadful condition of public nursery schools; how do we expect them to love learning?” Mr Wamatangi posed.
He added: “Currently, we are constructing 130 Early Childhood Education Centers (ECDE) that will be identical and will be completed in December as the first phase of a comprehensive effort to guarantee that all 524 public nursery schools are modernized in the next three years.”

Margaret Muthoni, the chief instructor at Mbariki ECDE centre in Nyanduma Ward, Lari County, which is one of the centres that have been transformed from a wooden ramshackle.

“The school’s walls were collapsing, and the floor was a mess. The general state of hygiene was very poor. Therefore, whenever we admitted kids for PPI, their parents would transfer them in the second term, blaming the schools’ bad conditions,” Muthoni said.
Muthoni said the number of pupils was consistently under 20 and that it had only recently begun to increase after the County introduced a feeding program for all 36 254 kids.

The County provides a stock of porridge flour and treys of eggs, and arrangements have been established for the centre’s administration to make the meals.
Porridge is offered daily, and eggs are also offered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,  and starting on March 14, 2024, the children began getting a packet of milk once a week.

The County Executive Committee Member in charge of the department, Ms Nancy Gichung’wa, says the program aims to increase enrollment and keep kids in schools, which most have been skipping due to a lack of food.
Further, to ensure that needy students do not miss lessons in high school, colleges and universities, the County increased the annual bursary kitty from Sh100 million, which was being disbursed from 2013 to 2022.
In 2023, Governor Wamatangi tripled the kitty to Sh300 million, allocated to 72,000 students in just one year.
This year, the County has increased the amount to Sh500 million, with the governor indicating that the minimum allocation per student will be Sh5,000 for Day School Students and Sh10,000 for Boarding School students.

 To ensure that young people get opportunities to acquire technical skills, the County is currently constructing and renovating more than 10 Vocational Training Centres (VTCs) across the County.
According to Ms Emily Nkoroi, the acting chief officer in charge of Vocational Training and Social Services, the devolved unit is increasing the capacity of the 39 VTCs in the County by installing the necessary machines and equipment to ensure they can train the youth in various skills.
As part of a planned beautification and enhancement of towns in the County, the regional government is installing cabro-making machines in selected VTCs to supply the paving stones. The youth will make cabro stones and install them on streets and walkways.

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