Lack of pre-school education that makes city kids ticking time bomb

Pupils at Jitahidi ECD Centre located in Katwekera in Kibra Sub County. [Nanjinia Wamuswa, Standard]

The marked rise of enrollment in early childhood education countrywide in the last two decades has masked a ticking time bomb in Nairobi.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, only a small fraction of about 300,000 three- and four-year-old children in the city’s informal settlements have access to credible pre-primary education. In fact, public institutions for early childhood education in slums are non-existent. Parents who can afford it send their children to unregulated informal daycare centres.