Influence of financing on quality assurance in early childhood education centers in Ugunja sub county, Siaya county Kenya

Abstract

Just as a high rise building needs a strong foundation to support the structure above the foundation, for education and lifelong learning are laid during the early childhood education subsector. The Kenya government, the community FBO and NGO have been financing ECE centres to enhance access, equity and quality services at the centres. However, in Ugunja sub county, low access to quality ECE centres services is still rampant. According to statistics available at the County Education Office, only 49% are accessing ECE services in the sub county. In order to improve quality assurance, financial support, physical facilities and human resources are paramount. The purpose of this study was to establish the quality assurance in ECE centres in Ugunja Sub County. The study was guided by the following objectives; establish how quality of teachers influence quality assurance, investigate how financing of school infrastructure influence quality assurance, how school budget in relation to financing influence quality assurance and to determine how the quality of grandaunts after financial support influence quality assurance in ECE centres. Relevant literature on sources of financing and quality assurance, teachers quality, school budget and access rate to ECE was cited. The study adopted ex post facto research design where 18 headteachers, 31 ECE teachers, and 125 learners were involved in the study. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistical research methods. Cross tabulations with frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the data. The major findings indicated that the teachers had the required academic qualifications, however, there was insufficient teacher remuneration, inadequate teaching and learning resource materials due to insufficient funding, inadequate seminars, workshops on curriculum, high number of learner to teacher after financial support that impeded quality assurance. The study recommended the Ministry of Education to draft a policy frameworks on ECE teacher remuneration, allocate more finances to QASOs to scale up auditing to improve academic performance and stakeholders to partner with the government in provision and stakeholders to partner with the government in provision of adequate teaching learning resources. It was also recommended that ECE should n be made free as a devolved function of county governments. For further research it was suggested that a study be done to establish influence of auditing on quality assurance in ECE.