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 immediate withdrawal of the circular.
Speaking to the press during the inaugural National Foundational Learning Conference 2026 at Wild Waters in Mombasa, Kericho Governor Dr Erick Mutai, who chairs the COG Education Committee, said the merger would disrupt ongoing programmes and disadvantage students pursuing specialized ECDE degrees.
“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,” Dr Mutai said.
He added that the COG had held fruitful discussions with the Education Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary on the urgent need to withdraw the circular.
“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,” Dr Mutai explained.
The Governor emphasized that ECDE is globally recognized as a specialized curriculum that cannot be merged with primary education.
Dr Mutai further disclosed that the COG had engaged President William Ruto on the need to ring-fence a dedicated Sh5 billion grant for ECDE teacher training and onboarding.
“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,” he said.
On delays of learning materials, Dr Mutai said the governors had also engaged the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to ensure the timely delivery of books and instructional materials to counties.
“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,” he added.
National Director of ECDE, Mrs Martha Odundo, welcomed the conference, describing it as the first-ever dedicated to foundational learning, which covers PP1 to Grade 3.
“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 said.
She noted that the three-day event had brought together all County Executive Committee members in charge of education, county directors, national government officials, CEOs of state agencies, and non-state actors.
“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,” she added.
By Sitati Reagan
