PROVISION OF EARLY LEARNING CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES IN UGANDA IS STILL A MYTH

According to the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), the Early Childhood Development (ECD) policy in the education sector was approved in 2007. Early childhood Development Education is offered to children of 3 to 5 years in ECD centres (commonly called nursery schools). It is aimed at providing early stimulation of the brain to provide social and learning advancement throughout life and instill essential values like trust, curiosity and social interaction.

The ECD curriculum is articulated in a comprehensive learning frame work. For purposes of accessibility by all caregivers, it has been translated from English, Uganda’s official language into Kiswahili and 16 major local languages of Runyoro/Rutooro, Runyankole/Rukiga, Luganda, Lukonzo, Lugbarati, Kumam, Lusoga, Pokot, Lebthu, Alur, Acholi, Ngakarimojongo, Ateso, Lango, Lubwisi and Dhopadhola. The learning framework is outcome and competence based and condemns examinations that are given to children but rather encourages continuous assessment.

Unfortunately, Inclusive Early Learning Childhood Development in Uganda is not for all. According to The New vision (2018), 80% of ECD centres are privately owned and out of reach by most Ugandans. Most of the children from 3 to 5 years keep in the hands of their parents that are inexperienced in handling ECD. Only 13.5% of the children in Uganda enroll for ECD education.

Of these, 53% are in urban areas and 19.5% in rural areas. This means, most ECDs are concentrated in urban areas and as earlier said, they are also privately owned. The few that are community-based receive very little state funding, are under-equipped, often lack bare essentials like clean water and toilets and are managed by untrained volunteers.

ECD education is dependent on families’ levels of income. According to Save the Children (2018), 53% of the children from families with highest income access ECD education; 21.6% from middle income families and only 6.7% from poorest families. This means, a child from a wealthy family is almost ten times likely to attend ECD education as a child from a poor family.

Despite the fact that there is evidence of ECD education in our country, there are also other issues, in addition to those already highlighted, that deprive the innovation of its value.

Most children that attend ECD education especially in urban areas are burdened with waking up very early so they are not left by school vans; they are given daily written homework activities and they keep at school for long hours because their parents pick them in the evening as they return home after work. This deprives them the right to play because by the time they reach home, it is already dark. The time at school is packed with class activities. Children that fall victim of this can hardly acquire the skills and values that ECD education is meant to instill.

The case of a rural child is worse. The child walks long distances from home to school in that by the time they have their first lesson, they are already tired. At school, conditions aren’t favouring the acquisition of the intended skills and values. The medium of instruction is English which is abstract to most children because they use their mother tongue at home, with their peers and in communities they live. Caregivers and proprietors claim that children must be taught in English so as to catch up with their counter parts in urban schools.

To most parents, ECD education is all about teaching their children how to speak English. Because most parents in rural areas of Uganda are poor, they find it difficult to pay for their children’s lunch at school. Children carry packed food from home. If it survives pouring on the way to school, by lunch time, it will have gone cold and at times, it goes bad. A child attending school under such conditions is most likely to go through the system and join Primary One like someone that has not attended school at all.

I applaud the government of the Republic of Uganda for having come up with such an innovation but if ECD education is to serve the purpose it is meant for, there is need to do more. There is need for funding the existing community ECD centres, and establishing more in especially in rural areas; there is need for improved monitoring and supervision so that propriators and caregivers stop using parent’s ignorance against the children.