The Role of Community and Parents’ Finances on Pre-School Children's Cognitive Achievements in Nakuru North Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

Education as a right to every person is fundamental to the success of the government overall development strategy. The Kenya Children Act (2001) states that, every child is entitled to basic right which education is key. The Kenya ECE programme encourages partnership at all levels. The government, parents, communities, religious and Non-Governmental Organizations are the main source of ECE finances and support. It is also worth stating that as communities’ partner in the development of the centers, taking responsibility for the provision of physical facilities, furniture, payment of salaries to teachers, organizing feeding programmes and provision of learning and play materials. The purpose of this study was to establish the role of community and parents’ finances on pre-school children’s cognitive achievements in Nakuru North Sub County, Kenya. The results obtained on the influence of community and parent’s finances on Pre-school children's cognitive achievements showed that diverse interacted aspects. Community ECDE centres lacked feeding programmes, inadequate instructional materials, furniture, play materials, latrines and playgrounds which affected the cognitive achievements of Pre-school children in the ECDE centres. The study concluded that availability of finances is closely related to cognitive achievements of Pre-school children in ECDE centres in Nakuru North Sub-County. The researcher recommended that in Community sponsored schools, the adequacy of instructional materials, physical facilities teacher’s salary, supervision, feeding programme and financial managerial capacity needed to be addressed appropriately