Cooperation between county and central government in provision of early childhood development education a case study of Nairobi county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine cooperation between county and national government in provision of Early Childhood Development Education a case study of Nairobi City County. The research examined the extent to which cooperative legal framework, human resource management mechanism, ECDE infrastructure development and management and financial resource allocation between National and Nairobi County government has influence provision of ECDE. System theory provided key conceptual framework to understanding basic system structure. The study used descriptive survey research design, cluster and purposive sampling technique to obtain a sample population of 58 from 22 ECDE teachers and 36 ECDE managers from Nairobi city county education department ECDE staff list 2015.The structured questionnaires were used to solicit data, which was analyzed by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences and presented in tables and chart. The finding showed the majority 61% of the respondents were female, 50% of respondents had a negative verdict on existence of operational cooperative legal framework, equally an aggregate majority 64% believed intergovernmental ECDE financing was inadequate. Also the majority 63% believe there were inadequate ECDE teachers, however the majority 79% of ECDE teachers agreed that EDCE teachers had a well- developed training programmes. On adequacy of EDCE learning class room and playing spaces 53% agreed there exist supportive environment from the two levels of government. But the majority 89% expressed a negative opinion that ECDE had no sustainable ICT network for learning. To address these challenges, on legal framework the governments should negotiate, Enact laws and policy for ECDE in consultation with other relevant stakeholders. On human resource development and management there is need to carry out a survey to establish the optimal staff requirements at the two levels, in financing county and national governments need to increase ECDE capitation grants to keep pace with inflation and realities of the subsector, on ECDE infrastructure development and management inconsistences. Therefore in view of the fore mentioned, strategies and cohesive multi-sectorial perspectives approach should be adopted to avoid a wasteful competition, ineffective use of ECDE resources and costly duplication. Also adoption of a more dynamic but consultative approach to a legal reforms framework between two levels of government in ECDE provision need to be considered, and periodic surveys need to carried out to track the progress and provide information to guide informative strategies and policy formulation.