Educationalists under the Twaweza East Africa a civil society organization have reported that a few children attend early childhood Development Education which affects their basic competences. According to the outcomes of the Organization’s annual learning assessment, only one out of the three pupils in Primary 3-7 assessed had attended Early Childhood Development Education.
Releasing the results of the UWEZO fourth annual report, Farida Nasereka says according to the assessment, the pupils who attended the pre-primary level performed better than their colleagues that never attended this stage.
Emphasizing the significance of the Nursery Stage, the head of Early Childhood Development at Kyambogo University Dr. Godfrey Ejuu said there is need to focus on the training of teachers for this critical period in the children’s mental and psycho-social development. Dr.Ejuu adds that as government focuses on teachers training, parents should desist from demanding unnecessary academic excellence at this stage. He explains this affects the children’s abilities and basics skills.
The Senior Education Officer at the Ministry of Education George Mukose acknowledges that whereas Government is directly not into Nursery schools, it is keenly monitoring the operations of these facilities under the private sector.
Mukose is however optimistic that with World Bank funding, government is to set up 299 schools with Early Childhood development facilities to ensure that over 3 million children can access pre-primary level to improve academic performance at higher levels of learning.