By: Godwin Abedican

Arua
A research by Aga Khan University has revealed that the poor education foundation East African countries is affecting the quality of education.
The “foundation for learning” research outcome reveals that, governments in most east African countries pay little attention to the foundation of education while leaving the operation of pre-primary or childhood learning centers to be managed by private entities.

A Foundation for learning program, a five year program has been initiated by Aga Khan University to respond to the above cause in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania among other countries so as to establish strong child development centers as a foundation for the education system in the countries.
According to Anderu Monica, a professional development tutor from Koboko district in Uganda, an alumni of Aga khan university who specializes in early childhood training, as the main people who set the foundation for children’s learning, the government of Uganda has never considered those who work with the children in education foundation like nursery schools and other early childhood learning as people who are important in the education system. “ The government never thinks of nor even proposes for us to be included as teachers in this country and we are always left at the mercy of the school owners to decide on how much to pay us, when to pay us and even sometimes when not to pay us” she said.

The District Education Officer for Yumbe district, Luriga Rasul says it’s good for the government to support such initiatives and accept for them to be implemented if the education system in the country is to be improved right from the foundation from the early childhood learning centers. “It’s a good idea that the government needs to fully support and the government needs to come up with monitoring strategies to ensure their efficiency even though there are financial constraints in the education sector” he added.

The research director Aga Khan University, Nipaeli Mbrutu urges the governments in the selected east African countries to be ready to support the development of the Early Childhood Development centers. “There is a good political will from the government of the selected countries towards ensuring the success of this project which makes us hopeful that the project will register success” she said.