Renovated ECD Centre in Kajiado County promotes enrolment and retention

August 15, 2024

ChildFund renovated Shokut ECD and primary school in rural Kajiado County, Kenya, through its local partner, Mount Kilimanjaro Child Development Programme (MKCDP). Before the renovation, classrooms at the school lacked windows and blackboards and the floors were dilapidated, creating a dusty and windy learning environment that was unhealthy for students. Furthermore, the school had no proper working bathrooms. This hurt students’ grades and attendance.

We stepped in by cementing the classroom floors, replacing windows and blackboards, building new pit latrines, replacing the school entrance gate and constructing an administration block for teacher workrooms and a principal’s office. In addition to the school renovations, ChildFund also provides a porridge breakfast for ECD learners and a corn and beans lunch (a Kenyan dish known as githeri) for ECD and primary school learners each day. Both these interventions have reversed declines in attendance and performance, with test scores improving by 36 percentage points on average since the renovations.

“Having quality education ensures that learners can transition to other levels of education,” says Sammy Saiguran Ntalamia, Sponsorship and Communication Coordinator for MKCDP. “They can proceed to tertiary institutions, and they’re able to graduate and return to their communities to help them to improve the level of development.”

“Sometimes [students] don’t get food at home at all,” continues Sammy. “So they come to get food at school. Enrollment has increased. And with the clean learning environment, learners now have improved grades. We’ve seen a positive deviation of more than 36 points. That’s an incredible job by the school.”