early childhood education and teacher development in kenya: lessons learned

Early Childhood Education and TeacherDevelopment in Kenya: Lessons Learned

Diane AdamsUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison

Beth Blue SwadenerArizona State University

ABSTRACT: This article draws from the authors’ experiences over several years inearly childhood education research and professional development activities in Kenya.Both authors have conducted national studies in collaboration with leaders of the Na-tional Centre for Early Childhood Education (NACECE) in Nairobi. This article synthe-sizes findings from these studies, focusing on the national and district systems of pre-school teacher training and development and discussing Kenya’s rich history of earlyeducation and care. Cross-national studies of early childhood professional developmentand the roles of the state in providing for early childhood development and care can beinformed through the “lessons learned” in one contemporary African society.

KEY WORDS: early childhood government policy; Kenya; teacher development; WorldBank ECD initiative.

Early childhood education, child care, and preschools around theworld are supported by governments to varying degrees as places forearly stimulation of young children, to assist employed families, andfor school preparation (Myers, 1995; Schweinhart, Barnes, & Weikart,1993). Many authors who write about early childhood in internationalcontexts report in almost “tourist” fashion about the similarities and

Correspondence should be directed to Beth Blue Swadener, Arizona State University,Division of Curriculum & Instruction, P.O. Box 870211, Tempe, AZ 85287-0211.

We could not have written this article without the groundbreaking work of the lateLeah Kipkorir, who was the Ministry of Education’s director of the Kenya Institute ofEducation and who encouraged the development of the country’s Preschool Project inthe early 1970s. Both Margaret Kabiru and Anne Njenga, in their 20-year leadershiproles at NACECE, have been the formative creators of a system that stands as a modelfor other nations, recently including South Africa and Uganda. Mrs. Kabiru and Mrs.Njenga now serve as independent early childhood consultants through the MwanaMwende Child Development Trust. We are particularly grateful for what we have beenable to learn about Kenya’s early childhood system from them and from our manycolleagues in preschools and in national and district early childhood offices.

Child & Youth Care Forum, 29(6), December 2000 2000 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 385

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differences between preschool policy in the U.S. and other countries.We also began that way, as our travels to several African countries ledus to understand something of their early childhood systems, but nocountry captured our imagination and interest as much as Kenya.Adams lived in East Africa for two years, starting in 1970, and beganto gain more understanding of the political and economic factors atwork in Kenya after interviewing some national early childhood leadersthere in 1982. Swadener began her work in Senegal and The Gambiain 1986 and first came to Kenya in 1992.

Over several years we were led to consider more intensive involve-ment and to assist in the development of early childhood education inKenya. Adams lived for 9 months in Kenya in 1990 and met MargaretKabiru and Anne Njenga, then the Programme Coordinator and DeputyCoordinator of the National Centre on Early Childhood Education (NA-CECE). In 1992, Diane and Beth assisted NACECE in coordinatingthe first Early Childhood Training Collaboration Seminar held in Nai-robi. The collaborative seminar brought together U.S. early childhoodeducators and researchers with about 40 Kenyan colleagues. The U.S.team also visited a number of rural and urban preschools. This seminarbegan an 8-year collaboration, with two more collaboration seminars(in 1994 and 1999), along with each of us doing research studies for aWorld Bank Early Childhood Development project in 1995. Swadener,Kabiru, & Njenga, (2000) discussed the complexities of conducting re-search with 21 local, district level collaborators and their attempts to“decolonize” their research.

In an effort to strengthen genuine research collaborations in Kenya,we have drawn from the work of post-colonial theorists such as LeelaGandhi (1998), Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999), and Homi Bhabha (1994),and we have sought to name and resist patterns of power and privilegethat perpetuate inequities and maintain colonial notions of first andthird world women, children, and sites of research. Specific strategieshave included: (a) collaborating on the development of research ques-tions, (b) working on the refinement of interview protocols and researchdesigns, (c) collecting data using several local languages as well asKiswahili and English, (d) analyzing the data together, and (e) co-authoring with Kenyan colleagues.

The field of early childhood education in Kenya is now at a vulnerablestage, with a high stakes and at times controversial $35 million WorldBank Early Child Development (ECD) Project that began in 1998.(For example, World Bank funds can be frozen or withheld for non-programmatic reasons related to structural adjustment policies.) Thereis also new leadership at both NACECE and in the Ministry of Educa-tion which may contribute to a lack of continuity in national preschoolpolicy.

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This article begins by providing some background information onKenya and then describes the development of preschools and earlychildhood education in the country. Because of the central and uniqueplace that the training of early childhood teachers takes in Kenya, wethen present an analysis of that system, including vignettes of preschoolteachers in two contrasting districts in Kenya. The article concludeswith some of the “lessons learned,” which might be applicable to otherswho do policy planning for early childhood and related research.

These lessons relate to the ways in which early childhood care andeducation are viewed, how infrastructure for teacher development canbe constructed, and how an organic, grassroots approach to communitymobilization for children can grow into a national movement. We arehopeful that these findings will be relevant to early childhood colleaguesin a number of national contexts, particularly to those working innations facing similar social and economic challenges.

Kenya: Background and Multiple Contexts of the Study

One of the national characteristics that distinguishes Kenya fromother sub-Saharan African nations is its well-established system ofearly education and care. Kenya is located in East Africa between 3°north and 5° south of the equator, and it has a total land mass justslightly smaller than Texas. Kenya remains a predominantly rural,agrarian society, comprised of diverse ethnic groups, with over fortydistinctive language groups and several major religious communities,including Christian (with Anglican and Catholic comprising the largestpercentage), Islamic, and Hindu, along with traditional religions.

Until recently, child care and early socialization of preschool-agechildren throughout the world has been governed by “powerful family/community structures and traditions, a phenomenon well documentedby anthropologists and cross-cultural psychologists” (Woodhead, 1996).Western researchers (Harkness & Super, 1987; Kilbride & Kilbride,1990; LeVine, Dixon, LeVine, Richman, Leiderman, Keefer, & Brazel-ton, 1994; Weisner, Bradley & Kilbride, 1997; Whiting and Edwards,1998; Whiting, 1996) and Kenyan researchers (e.g., Kipkorir, 1994;Bali & Kabiru, 1992; Gakuru & Koech, 1995; Gakuru, Koech, & Nduati,1995), have documented the powerful influences of families and clansin rearing children. Although these traditions remain deeply en-trenched in the values of Kenyan families, few communities have beenunaffected by rapid social and economic change including urbanization,an increase in female-headed households, and rising costs of educationand health care (Kilbride & Kilbride, 1997; Swadener, Kabiru &Njenga, 2000). Currently, for example, one-third of Kenyan families


are headed by single mothers (Government of Kenya & UNICEF, 1998),most of whom live in poverty. Urbanization and dislocation, includingthe rapid growth of squatter settlements and the increase in homeless-ness, have also contributed to these patterns of change (Swadener &Mutua, 2000).

Most of the traditional cultures/ethnic groups which comprise Ken-yan society contained strong elements of economic and political egali-tarianism. From the struggle for independence to the present, theseegalitarian ideals have been embodied in Kenya’s principle of Haram-bee, a Kiswahili term meaning “to pull together.” Within the Harambeemovement, people help each other and no one is left behind or left out.In the past decade, however, the core concepts underlying this principlehave not been realized by the majority of Kenyans, particularly thevery poor, who continue “to pull” but sometimes find that the benefitsfrom their labor are eroding (e.g., the cost of basic commodities haverisen while wage increases have been stagnant and unemploymentremains high).

A Brief History of Formal Early Childhood Careand Education in Kenya

Preschools were introduced in Kenya as early as the 1940s, mainlyon the tea and coffee plantations and in several larger towns (Nairobiwas the only site of formal preschools in the 1940s). During the periodof colonial rule and persisting into post-colonial Kenya after its indepen-dence in 1963, the schools were segregated, including preschools. Therewere preschools for children of British and Asian families, missionpreschools in rural areas that often included feeding programs forchildren, and the early custodial day care centers of the plantations.Still more child care centers opened during the Mau Mau wars ofindependence (1953–1960), with activities for children that includedsinging and dancing (Kabiru, 1993). In the 1950s, these preschool edu-cation centers greatly expanded nationwide and provided custodial careto children while their mothers were involved in forced labor.

During the early days of nationhood, there were only a few formaltraining programs for preschool teachers. An analysis by Governmentof Kenya officials in 1971 revealed that out of 5,000 teachers only 400had received basic training in aspects of preschool education (cited inWork Bank Technical Paper #367, 1997). The remaining teacherslacked adequate knowledge and skills for “providing stimulating learn-ing experiences” for the children (Kabiru, 1993). The classrooms typi-cally had no learning and play materials and primarily used the rote


teaching methods usually reserved for primary and secondary educa-tion.

Faced with this reality, the Kenya Government, through the Ministryof Education (MOE) and with the assistance of the Bernard van LeerFoundation, initiated the Preschool Education Project in 1971. Themain objective of this project was to improve the quality of preschooleducation through the development of viable training models for earlychildhood care and education (ECCE) personnel, ECCE curricula, andother support materials for use by the children, teachers, and trainers.The Ministry of Education began to assume all implementation activi-ties of the project, including the formation of a preschool section at theKenya Institute of Education (KIE), although the Ministry of Cultureand Social Services was organizationally responsible for preschool edu-cation in Kenya through 1981.

In 1982 this responsibility was fully transferred to the Ministry ofEducation (Adams, 1983; Ng’eno, 1982). This shift came about becauseof a national seminar held to discuss the experiences and outcomes ofthe early Preschool Education Project. One of the recommendationsmade during this seminar was the establishment of a national centerfor early childhood education and a network of district level centers.These were expected to facilitate the dissemination of the project’sexperiences and outcomes. The Ministry of Education responded tothis recommendation by establishing the National Centre for EarlyChildhood Education (NACECE) in 1984 and the District Centres forEarly Childhood Education (DICECE) in 1985. The decision to placeearly childhood education in the Ministry of Education rather than inthe Ministry of Culture and Social Services was far-sighted. In the U.S.,most state child care licensing programs are located in Departments ofHealth and Social Services (or a similar designation), and there is acontinual struggle to define early childhood programs as either “care”or “education” but not both. Placing Kenya’s preschool efforts in theMOE created a clear link to other education programs although, asdiscussed later, preschool teachers in Kenya are still not formally partof the Teacher Service Commission and, as such, do not have the samelevel of professionalism nor are they part of the national pay schemefor teachers.

At the time of its founding until the present, NACECE’s mission hasbeen to assure the development of training, curriculum, resources, andresearch in early childhood education across the country. Its responsi-bilities include (a) training of ECCE personnel (primarily “training oftrainers”); (b) development and dissemination of the curriculum forECCE programs; (c) identifying, designing, and coordinating researchin ECCE; (d) offering services and facilitating interaction betweenchild-serving agencies and their funders; (e) coordinating and acting


as liaison with external partners, and (f) informing the public on theneeds and developments of the ECCE program (Kabiru, 1993).

The establishment of district centers on early childhood education(DICECEs) in all parts of the country facilitated the decentralizationof the ECCE program. The DICECEs are part of the District EducationOffices that monitor educational standards and approve the registra-tions of preschools at the district level. The functions of these districtearly childhood centers include (a) training of the preschool teachersand other personnel at the district level; (b) supervision and inspectionof district preschool programs; (c) mobilization of communities, throughtheir preschools, to improve the care, health, nutrition, and educationof young children; (d) development of local preschool curriculum andmaterials; (e) participation in the assessment of preschool programs,and (f) carrying out basic research on the status of preschool-age chil-dren, in and out of formal programs. Figure 1 provides a visual depictionof these relative roles of the DICECEs.

Parents and local communities are the most important partners inthe ECCE programs in Kenya. They began and now manage over 75% ofthe preschools in the country, often with the assistance of the DICECEtrainers and typically starting on a “Harambee” basis. Through thesefundraising efforts, the parents and local communities provide landand funds for the construction and maintenance of physical facilities.They usually also provide furniture, materials and labor, and pay teach-ers’ salaries. Parents furnish food and/or labor toward a morning snack,if provided, and may even donate a “Harambee cow,” which providesmilk for the program. Many of the non-governmental organizations(NGOs) in Kenya are involved in early childhood and family supportservices, particularly in semi-arid rural areas and urban slums andsquatter settlements (Swadener & Mutua, 2001). Like many othercountries, a number of religion-sponsored preschools exist, includingCatholic mission preschools and Madrassa preschools for children inIslamic communities.

Growth in Preschool Enrollment

Enrollment in preschool programs continues to grow in Kenya (seeFigure 2 and Table 1). In 1973, preschool enrollment was nearly300,000, with 6,326 teachers. By 1979, enrollment in preschools hadrisen to 400,000 children attending some 8,000 preschools, and thenumber of teachers had grown to over 10,000. More recent statistics(Kabiru, 1999) indicate that 1,080,626 children are enrolled in over24,000 centers.

Despite this growth, only about one-third of Kenya’s preschool-age(3–5 years) children are enrolled in a nursery or preschool (Swadener,


Figure 1Early Childhood Care and Education System in Kenya

aDistrict Centres for Early Childhood Education.bThis number changes as more Districts are formed and/or as Associate DICECEs be-come “fully fledged.”

Kabiru, & Njenga, 1997). Infrastructure problems and a shortage ofavailable preschools account for some of the low participation, butseveral other cultural, economic, and environmental factors complicatethe situation. Economic factors, including the cost of fees, uniforms(which most preschools require), mandatory Harambee contributions,and other related expenses typically mitigate against enrolling childrenin preschools. Some parents interviewed were also concerned about thelong distances children would have to walk to the closest preschool andthe risks associated with making the trip on foot (e.g., wild animals insome areas and safety concerns in slum areas) (Swadener, Kabiru, &Njenga, 1997). In addition, a sizable number of children are retained


Figure 2Growth in the Number of Children in Kenyan Preschools

Note. Data is from Ministry of Education/UNICEF, 1992; Ministry of Education, 1994;Mwana Mwende Trust, (personal communication, 1998); World Bank Aide-Memoire,1994.Sources: “ECCE in Kenya,” MOE/UNICEF, 1992; Aide-Memoire, World Bank, 1994;MOE Statistics, 1994; Mwana Mwende Trust, 1998.

in the extended family system of child care (Kabiru, 1993); that is, theyare needed to provide care to younger siblings and other relatives.Children born earlier in the birth order may be more likely to haveaccess to preschool; girls are traditionally more likely than boys to bekept home from preschool and primary school to care for younger sib-lings (Swadener, Kabiru & Njenga, 2000). However, an emphasis onimproving access to education of girls has contributed to increasedenrollment. Recently, for example, 556,196 boys and 524,430 girls wereenrolled in preschool programs (Kabiru, personal communication,1999).

In Kenya as in many other nations, there is growing family andcommunity pressure for children to have at least one year of preschoolprior to entering primary school. However, particularly in rural areaswhere children often walk great distances to preschools, parents oftenwait until children are at least four years of age for preschool enrollment(Swadener, Kabiru, & Njenga, 2000). In urban areas and on planta-tions, parents tend to enroll children in preschools and child care pro-


Table 1Growth in the Number of Kenyan Preschools

1963 1979 1986 1991 1993 1994 1998

<18 most 6,000 12,182 17,650 18,400 19,083 24,127in Nairobi centers centers centers centers centers centers

NA NA 16,182 24,809 25,300 27,829 37,979teachers teachers teachers teachers teachers

(68% (65% (62% (62% (57%untrained) untrained) untrained) untrained) untrained)

Note. Data is from Ministry of Education/UNICEF, 1992; Ministry of Education, 1994;Mwana Mwende Trust, (personal communication, 1998); World Bank Aide-Memoire,1994.Sources: “ECCE in Kenya,” MOE/UNICEF, 1992; Aide-Memoire, World Bank, 1994;MOE Statistics, 1994; Mwana Mwende Trust, 1998.

grams at a younger age, usually by age three. Care for children underthree is primarily done by ayahs, or housegirls, who provide in-homecare along with other household responsibilities, or by extended familymembers—particularly grandmothers—when available (Swadener,Kabiru, & Njenga, 2000).

Preschool Teacher Preparation and Inservice Training

Preschool Purposes. A 1995 study of preschool teacher training—thesystem, the partners, participants, and trainers—showed that the ap-parently integrated Kenyan early education system has some odd gaps(Adams & Kabiru, 1995). While created with input from local authori-ties, parents, and communities, the preschools were designed to “fosterchild development.” According to the government’s own policy paper,preschool programs should be created that will enable children to de-velop physical skills, understand temporal and spatial relationships,understand numbers, acquire a “range of knowledge about the worldaround them,” and “develop an appreciation of other people’s needsand views” (Government of Kenya, 1988). In other words, the preschoolsshould foster sound child development, which calls for the recruitmentof “able teachers” who are able to have “appropriate terms and condi-tions of services based on their academic and professional qualifica-tions” (Government of Kenya, 1988). Thus preschool education policyin Kenya sets up a double bind of requiring well qualified teacherswhile having no professional recognition for them.


Teacher Recognition. A country with relatively low career expectations,particularly for women, faces the challenge of professional recognition.Like other countries, Kenyans do not automatically place preschoolteachers on a par with other teachers. Even the Teacher Service Com-mission (TSC), which was created as a unified teaching service schemefor teachers, fails to include preschool teachers. A government policydocument points out the legal provision that requires all teachers inKenya to be registered by the TSC (Government of Kenya, 1988). How-ever, this requirement does not apply to preschool teachers, and theirexclusion from the TSC is a contentious factor in the recruitment,training, terms of service, pay levels, and continuing service of teachersin early childhood programs throughout the country.

Standards for Training Courses. Training is provided in Kenya forpreschool teachers, using an approved curriculum created by NACECEand facilitated by trainers from the DICECEs. The preschools them-selves, however, are unique to their communities. Some are highlystructured, “school-like” programs for the children, while others areclearly informal places where children learn some songs, stories, andsocialize. A number of “preschools” do not have permanent buildingsor are held outdoors. In a study of Maasai and Samburu communities,Swadener often found “under threes under trees.”

Teaching and classroom standards are not always implemented. Inmany parts of the country, the average preschool class size alone isenough to create dissatisfaction with the job; though the recommendedsize is no more than 30–35 children (Guidelines for Preschool Educationin Kenya, 1989), the average size in 29 districts studied in 1995 rangedfrom 19 to 54 preschoolers (Adams & Kabiru, 1995), with an averageof nearly 40 children per teacher. Some of the most crowded conditionswe have observed in child care and preschool settings in Kenya arefound on the coffee, tea, and sisal plantations, where working motherscannot take children into the fields or other work settings. One pre-school teacher/caregiver had 100 children and used older (preschoolage) siblings of infants and toddlers in the program as “assistants.”Napping conditions in such settings were extremely crowded and in-creased the risks of respiratory infections. Observations in both planta-tion and slum settings found up to 50 young children napping closetogether on cold cement floors with few blankets (Swadener, Kabiru, &Njenga, 2000).

Modalities and Duration of Courses. Preschool teacher trainers arecurrently being trained in “participatory methods” (non-didactic teach-ing that includes problem-solving, discussion, and active learning).


The Training of Trainers (TOT) system is promoted widely throughNACECE, and most DICECE trainers have been through the TOT“induction” course. This “induction” course consists of three one-monthresidential sessions plus a field placement (“attachment”) of one monthin a community setting, such as a preschool or District Education office.The most widely used training system for preschool teachers requiresthem to attend a two-year course, consisting of six residential sessions(held during the school holidays), assessment by the DICECE trainers,and approval by the Ministry of Education. Yet another training modal-ity is for county council or local authority preschool supervisors toattend a 6-month course, with a 3-week residential component withDICECE trainers. Thus there is some level of training for every typeof preschool position. The timing of the inservice models also includesa short course format for those who cannot attend six times over a 2-year period.

World Bank ECD Project and Preschool Teacher Training. The EarlyChildhood Development project approved by the World Bank and theGovernment of Kenya in 1996 called for $35 million to be spent on anumber of components intended to support, enhance, and develop thelives of young children (World Bank Staff Appraisal Report, 1997).1

Among these were:

• Improved preschool teacher training (about $5 million)• Capacity building and mobilization of local communities (about $.35

million)• Health and nutrition components (about $4.5 million)• Community grants for preschool communities (about $800,000)• Institutional strengthening for Ministry of Education (about $8.7

million)• Monitoring and evaluation (about $1 million)

An already well-developed preschool care and education system couldhave been further strengthened by the deployment of new personnel,new funding, and a new curriculum for teacher training. Only thefinal evaluation of the World Bank ECD project will show whether thepromise of a large loan did what it intended.

James Grant, former director of UNICEF, often spoke of needing togive global issues, such as debt restructuring, a “human face.” In orderto bring the conditions faced by preschool teachers in Kenya to life, weturn now to stories of two teachers whose lives are dedicated to improv-ing situations for very young children. They offer insight into the “real”


world of teaching in Kenyan preschools and raise issues we will discussin the final sections of this article.

A Rural Teacher Tells Her Story

Prior to her marriage in 1968, Lydia Gicuku Njiru, from Embu onthe eastern slopes of Mt. Kenya, had looked for a teaching job, but noone would hire her because she was not qualified. Two years later, shewas called for an interview as a preschool teacher in Runyenjes town,a sub-district of Embu. She obtained and kept that job for over 25years! Though Lydia was not a “trained” preschool teacher, since shehad only completed the Kenya Primary Education examination (theequivalent of 8th grade education), she attended a three-month coursein Embu, organized by the district nursery supervisor and beganteaching.

It was not until 1985 that Lydia attended the then newly-launchedtwo-year preschool teacher education program organized by DICECE.Lydia had by this time much experience and “on the job” training, butshe was still excited by this new course. Even so, spending all of one’sschool holidays for two full years is not easy; it means no trips “up-country” to see your relatives or no time at home when your ownchildren are back on school holiday. But Lydia was highly motivatedand learned a great deal from her course. Eventually she received acertificate from the DICECE and later participated in a “preschoolteacher panel.” These are support groups of preschool teachers at thesub-location level, often organized initially by DICECE trainers. Teach-ers gather weekly or bi-weekly to make materials, discuss professionaland personal issues, and sometimes engage in income-generating activ-ities such as selling eggs or rabbits.

Lydia’s training and experience did not lead to a high salary orincreased status. Her current salary is less than the minimum wagerecommended by the Kenya government. But she remains committed toactivities such as helping struggling parents make ends meet, helpingparents make play and learning materials for their children, and start-ing programs of growth monitoring and other activities to help familyand community members become better promoters of primary health.She is viewed as a community leader and is called upon to be a changeagent for families in Runyenjes. She spends much of her limited freetime championing the rights of women—particularly the education ofgirls. From having no education-related experience to now having over25 years in the classroom, on the job training, formal course workand continuing education, Lydia Njiru’s story is one of promise and


fulfillment, even within the constraints of her gender, income, andrelative lack of power.

A Madrassa Teacher in a Coastal Province

Josephine is a preschool teacher in Kwale town, located in the hillsabove the Kenyan coast. She is responsible for enrolling children, ob-taining fees from the parents, stocking the center with materials andplay equipment, and serving as a community catalyst for the educationof young children.

From Kwale town to the coast is only about 12 miles, but the culturaldifferences are vast. Diani Beach, on the coast, has many hotels, plentyof prostitution, gambling, and a leisure lifestyle. Kwale, on the otherhand, is a hill town, the site of provincial headquarters, the districtministry of education, and a school for disabled children. The majority ofresidents are Muslim. Traditionally, girls were not educated in Muslimhomes, but times are changing very fast. Today there are many Ma-drassa (Muslim) preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools inand around Kwale. The DICECE office (located in the AgriculturalTraining Station complex) offers training and inspections to all thepreschool teachers in the district.

Josephine is part way through her two-year DICECE training course,but with her own 7 children and teaching every day, plus raising somepineapples and papaya for sale, she has little time free for studying.A major issue came up at the recent 3-week training course: Josephineand two other teachers complained about having 60 or 70 children intheir one-room preschool classrooms. Why so many children, when thegovernment recommendation is no more than about 30 per classroom?Why were some of these children 9 years old, when the curriculum wasdeveloped for 3–5 year olds?

The discussion was not about the inappropriateness of this for olderchildren who were enrolled in preschool because they had not yet evenstarted Standard 1 (first grade), but it was about the issue of tryingto collect fees from parents who were unused to paying for educationfor the preschool age group. Some teachers in the group said: “Youshould get a parent committee to collect the fees,” to which Josephinereplied: “Yes, but they won’t pay me if I don’t get the fees myself.” Her“hidden arithmetic” made sense: If you enroll 60 children there is twicethe anticipated fee income, some of which can be used to guarantee asalary for the teacher.

Josephine is trying to be what the DICECE wants her to be—atrained early childhood development teacher who is willing to helpmake changes in her community. She is limited by a clash of cultures


between traditional teaching and the need for knowledge of contempo-rary business practices (such as collecting fees from parents).

Each of these teacher portraits highlights some of the tensions andcontradictions involved in efforts to professionalize the early childhoodeducation field in Kenya. Low pay, multiple roles, and sometimes con-tradictory expectations from various stakeholders make preschoolteachers’ work challenging. Many preschool teachers we have inter-viewed have gone for long periods of time with little or no pay, doextensive community outreach work, and struggle to support their ownfamilies. They are valued members of local communities (and have therespected title of “mwalimu” or “teacher”) who are becoming bettertrained to fulfil their many duties for children and families.

Lessons Learned

This article on the Kenyan preschool system is admittedly told fromthe point of view of two ardent enthusiasts for a project that helpsfamilies and provides community building. For each of the “lessonslearned” below we have in mind a specific situation or person, whichhave personal meaning to us due to having had the privilege of “bordercrossing” interactions.

1. Communication is difficult, but possible. Lack of transportationto inspect preschools, no funding for training equipment, and littleaccess to information about the next available courses for preschoolteachers are circumstances which many DICECE trainers experience.But communicate they do! They walk, talk, hitch rides, fix flat tires,and eventually “make things happen.” Before returning to Kenya in1994, Swadener conducted a Harambee to raise money to purchase apiki piki (small motorcycle) to be used by the Embu DICECE trainersfor visiting preschools in their district. It is still being used.

2. A few key leaders are essential. Margaret Kabiru, Anne Njenga,Henry Manani, Mercy Birichi . . . these and many other dedicated pro-fessionals have labored throughout the country to develop coherentprograms which they then promoted to GOK officials. They write, meet,plan, develop the syllabus, and teach. Without the leaders “on theground” no large-scale government intervention could have worked aswell as has this one.

3. Capacity building is needed for child care and early education.Just as parents and extended family members feel the pressures ofrapid social and economic change on their available options for childcare and meeting the needs of their families, the infrastructure forearly education and care is experiencing many “growing pains.” As inmany other nations, Kenya does not have a formal system for providing


non-familial care for children under three years of age, and informalsystems are piecemeal and threatened by rapid social and culturalchange (Swadener, Kabiru, & Njenga, 2000).

A number of conferences and a few Kenyan research studies haveaddressed challenges related to providing affordable and safe care of“under threes” (Gakuru & Koech, 1995; Gakuru, Koech & Nduati, 1995;Kipkorir, 1994). This issue is particularly acute for the rapidly growingnumbers of working mothers, single mothers, and families who nolonger have access to traditional care providers, such as grandmothersor extended family members.

Models similar to family child care homes are being tried, with manylocal and cultural variations, in both urban and rural settings. Anexample would be the DICECE initiatives with the Maasai clans inNarok district, where trainers work with grandmothers and other tradi-tional caregivers for the youngest children to include more health andnutritional practices and to encourage toy-making and use of tradi-tional songs and stories. Such efforts attempt to build upon indigenoustraditions while recognizing the need for enhanced care and child healthpromotion. This model becomes difficult, however, with land tenurepatterns that include private, versus collective, land ownership andsub-division of land. Extended families become displaced and separatedfrom traditional sources of child care.

4. Child care needs are universal. In urban settings and on manyrural plantations, there is an extremely great need for accessible, afford-able, and safe child care—and for better prepared teachers and caregiv-ers to meet this growing need. With rapid urbanization and dislocationof families, young mothers in sprawling slums and squatter settlementstypically have few options for child care—a problem associated withthe growing number of children living and working on the street in allof Kenya’s cities and towns. While some wonderful examples of women’sself-help child care cooperatives and church or NGO-sponsored childcare programs exist, the need far outstrips the available programs.

5. There are mutual influences between preschool programs and pri-mary education systems. Turning to the potential for early childhoodpractices to “trickle up” into the primary years, we have witnessed anumber of such examples, primarily in rural primary schools wherethe nursery school was in close proximity to the primary school. Thiscan take the form of primary teachers observing the effectiveness ofusing homemade manipulatives and learning centers to teach conceptsusually limited to paper and pencil or “chalk and talk” teaching meth-ods. It can also mean more use of songs, movement, and games. These,however, tended to be exceptions.

A more frequent phenomenon, which we have both encountered inthe field, is the pressure (not unlike in the U.S. and other neo-liberal,


standards-driven nations) for preschool teachers to better preparelearners for their Standard 1 interview and the structured primarycurriculum. The interview, or screening assessment, can determinewhich primary school a child is allowed to attend or whether somechildren will attend school at all. Many urban parents and a numberof teachers expressed concerns about these trends, which mirror the“pushing down” of primary curriculum into early childhood programsfrequently discussed in U.S. early childhood literature, particularly inNAEYC publications.

Yet another influence creates the frustration frequently expressedby preschool teachers: Their feeling of marginalization within the largerprimary school compound. Preschool children are rarely part of school-wide inspections or special programs and events. The preschool teach-ers are often excluded from faculty meetings and considered as quiteseparate from the primary school, though their classrooms may belocated only a few meters away. Some DICECE field-based initiativeshave sought to address these transition and collaboration issues be-tween preschool and primary systems, but few have been able to sustaintheir efforts for very long.

Conclusion and Future Directions

In summary, we have each learned a great deal from our collaborativeopportunities in Kenya. As a model for state support of preschool educa-tion and community mobilization, the NACECE and DICECE systemis exemplary. Other so-called developing nations may be able to usesimilar methods to increase their support for early childhood develop-ment. The Kenyan model of preschool staff development and inservicetraining, while not without challenges and barriers, has led to risingpublic expectations for early education. Like other nations, includingthe United States, living wage issues and reasonable working condi-tions for early childhood staff must continue to be emphasized andsystematically advocated. The lack of infrastructure for the care ofchildren under age three is also a pressing social issue in Kenya andwill demand greater attention and funding. This will likely acceleratethe inter-sectoral collaboration of DICECE staff and local preschoolteachers with the Ministry of Health, particularly for child and mater-nal health promotion activities.

All of this will require, in part, a greater commitment of nationaland donor resources for early childhood education. The 1997 KenyanEconomic Survey (Central Bureau of Statistics, 1997) shows govern-ment funding for early childhood education to be only 2.15% of Ministryof Education spending.


To quote our colleague, Margaret Kabiru (1993): “Training of [pre-school] teachers has introduced the following major changes in theprovision of early childhood education: Greater enrollment, better care,improved learning environments, and enhanced health, growth moni-toring and promotion” (pp. 55–56). All those involved in the early child-hood education system need to help spread this message, so that govern-ment leaders/policymakers recognize its potential for changing the livesof children and families.

Reaching the other two-thirds of “untrained” preschool teachers inKenya would seem a high leverage investment for various stakeholders,including the Government of Kenya and various NGOs and/or otherfunders, to make. While we remain cautious and at times critical oflarge scale interventions in community and national systems whichhave grown in organic and culturally appropriate ways, we also recog-nize that some opportunities cannot be ignored. During the period whenearly childhood development is in the forefront of World Bank prioritiesis likely a very opportune time to build upon the early childhood lessonslearned in Kenya.

Endnote

1. It is important to note that at the time of this writing (August 2000), only about 8%of these funds had been released and much of that expenditure was targeted atMinistry of Education and NGO infrastructure (e.g., vehicles, consulting, and technicalsupports such as computers).

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