A motion seeking to push the Kisumu County government to offer free Early Child Development Education (ECDE) in Kisumu was shot down by the assembly on Wednesday.
MCAs felt that the motion was not properly researched and needed to be enhanced before it is tabled again for debate.
The mover of the motion, nominated MCA Pamela Odhiambo, voiced her concern that the State had devolved medication and treatment for children under five years in hospitals, but in education, the childhood development education is left hanging in the hands of parents, guardians and the community.
The new constitutional dispensation had devolved early childhood development and education to the county government functions and created a ministry of gender youth social welfare education and children to manage the affairs of the sector to intensively manage, administer and essentially develop services and structures that are conducive to the development of children.
They are to cater for purchasing of learning materials, paying teachers and other cutting across childhood development issues.
“The culture has deteriorated the status of performance of the society and created a weak foundation to education pillars hence resulting into and ineffective human resource to build our economy,” said Odhiambo.
She said regardless of millennium development goals, policies and legislations, ECD has not been given the attention it deserves.
Odhiambo proposed the motion seeking to declare free compulsory early childhood development and education in public institutions and to put an annual budget to not only pay teachers but also equip the centres with institutional materials.
Kisumu County has a total of 601 public ECD centres with an estimated 36,050 pupils.
“The former municipal council employed some teachers of which over half have retired and need to be replaced,” said Odhiambo.
The teaching staff in the county need training since a third have not yet gone through the same. The statistics allow that the teacher child ratio is 1:68.
Odhiambo called for proper orientation and employment of early childhood development teachers and provision of ECD training programme. She also called for effective provision of instructional materials for teaching and development aid to public early childhood centres in Kisumu County.
However, members felt the motion lacked enough points and research for it to go through. Some also said the timing of the motion was wrong as the budget estimates are already out therefore it will be insincere of them to pass the motion yet it cannot be implemented because of cost implications.
Odhiambo was forced to withdraw the motion and the speaker of the day, Elijah Omondi, ruled that she takes the motion as an agenda to the committee of early childhood education where it will be discussed and brought to the floor afresh.