Abstract:
This paper intends to critically analyze the role of the county governments' role in
financing pre-schools in the counties with a special reference to Narok County. The
world bank ECDE project (1997-2003)strengthened the ECDE program through the
construction of conference facilities of NACECE, the staffing, equipping and capacity
building of DICECE, expansion of training opportunities for pre-school teachers and
university students and strengthening community involvement and engagement.
Through the Kenya Education Sector Support Program-KESSP(2005-2010), ECDE
has benefited through the community support grant and the ECDE capitation grant
that have played a strong pillar in strengthening ECDE. The role of financing
education has always been a partnership between the governments, parents and
communities. This has been the case even before the cost sharing policy
(Kamunge,1988)came into force. The government continued to pay the salaries of
teachers and education administrators and also fund some limited school facilities in
line with the cost sharing policy. The parents' role was that of paying for private
tuition, textbooks, materials and examinations. The community's role is to provide
land for building the schools, put up physical facilities and ensure maintenance of the
same. With the promulgation of the new constitution in Kenya in 2010,early
childhood development and education was devolved from the central government to
the county government as stipulated in the fourth schedule on the distribution of
functions in the constitution. It is therefore necessary that a review of the role of
county governments in financing ECDE centers be critically analyzed. This is with a
view of examining the strategies put in place by the counties to support ECDE centers
in Kenya. This paper reviews the Narok County government's plan to finance ECDE
Centers.
