Mombasa: The Council of Governors (COG) has strongly opposed the planned merger of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teacher training with primary teacher training and has written to the Ministry of Education demanding the immediate withdrawal of the circular.
According to Kenya News Agency, Kericho Governor Dr. Erick Mutai, who chairs the COG Education Committee, addressed the press during the inaugural National Foundational Learning Conference 2026 at Wild Waters in Mombasa. He stated that the merger would disrupt ongoing programs and disadvantage students pursuing specialized ECDE degrees. Dr. Mutai stressed, “A couple of months ago, the Ministry of Education issued a circular indicating that they want to merge the training of ECDE with primary teacher education. As a Council of Governors, we have written to the ministry saying that ECDE is a specialized curriculum for caregivers.”
He further elaborated that the COG had engaged in discussions with the Education Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary on the urgent need to retract the circular. Dr. Mutai explained, “The effect of that letter means that, as we speak today, the cluster of ECDE teachers, the bachelors of education ECDE in the universities, if you check in the funding model and the cluster, in this season they are missing out because of that curriculum. They are not going to benefit from the government support.”
The Governor emphasized the global recognition of ECDE as a specialized curriculum that cannot be integrated with primary education. Additionally, Dr. Mutai revealed that the COG had negotiated with President William Ruto to secure a dedicated Sh5 billion grant for ECDE teacher training and onboarding. He mentioned, “When devolution happened, the ECDE programme was not costed. Our counties have very small budgets, and if they are asked to fully implement the schemes of service, they will collapse their budget. That is why we need a ring-fenced grant specifically for ECDE.”
Addressing the issue of delays in learning materials, Dr. Mutai noted that the governors had engaged the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to ensure the timely delivery of books and instructional materials to counties. He stated, “Many times, it delays. In this meeting today, we are agreeing with KICD on the need to deliver the books and learning materials on time to the counties so that the Kenyan child is not in any way disadvantaged at the foundation level.”
The National Director of ECDE, Mrs. Martha Odundo, praised the conference, marking it as the first-ever dedicated to foundational learning, covering PP1 to Grade 3. She expressed her enthusiasm, “I am really delighted that today we have had the first conference ever on foundational learning. We are very much together with the county governments and the COG on this because we are the leaders of foundational learning in Kenya.” Mrs. Odundo highlighted the participation of County Executive Committee members in charge of education, county directors, national government officials, CEOs of state agencies, and non-state actors in the three-day event. She concluded, “This is one of its kind, and we are going to move forward. It is the inaugural national conference on foundational learning that we are starting.”
