- November 2, 2022
- Posted by: Dream_liner
- Category: October Newsletter
The proposed Randomized Control Trial (RCT) intervention in Tharaka Nithi County seeks to examine the impact of allowing children aged three years to attend preschool and introduce them into an adapted curriculum from the preprimary one curriculum designs. The preprimary school teachers and child caregivers will be inducted on how to handle three-year-old learners as well as receive regular coaching while implementing the curriculum. The intervention is hypothesized to improve child development and school readiness for children aged three years old. It is also hypothesized that the mothers with children aged three years will be relieved of their child care activities to undertake economic activities as well as labour force participation. The RCT will be implemented in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya to evaluate the impact of this intervention.
The intervention will target 3 year-olds and will use the infrastructure of Pre-primary one (PP1) classroom. According to the National Preprimary Policy (2017) PP1 is the first part of the Pre-Primary program, which currently admits only four-year-old children for one year before proceeding to PP2 in the second year. Under the proposed intervention children will attend PP1 starting when they are three years old. They will remain in PP1 for two years.
For the 3-year-olds the first year will be known as play group and in the second year they will proceed to PP1. The intervention will ensure to accommodate PP1 (4-year-olds) and playgroup (3 year-olds) in a way that is consistent with their ages. Caregivers will be hired to support the three-year-old children who will be accommodated in PP1 class under the guidance of the PP1 teacher.
In order to come up with adapted curriculum designs for children aged three years, a three days’ workshop was held in Chuka comprising of child specialists in collaboration with preprimary school teachers and county government officials from Tharaka Nithi County to adapt the PP1 curriculum designs into the content level of three year olds. The workshop sought to achieve the following objectives:
- Introduce participants into the objectives of the proposed playgroup curriculum designs development in relation to the implementation of RCT in Tharaka Nithi County
- Adapt the pp1 curriculum into the curriculum designs for the three year olds
- Strategize on the way forward for seamless implementation of the curriculum for 3 year olds.
The three days’ workshop happened at Southern Star Conference Hall in Chuka Town, attracting twelve participants drawn from preprimary school teachers, early childhood specialists drawn from universities, teacher training colleges and Tharaka Nithi County.
Stakeholders pose for a photo during the RCT curriculum validation workshop in Tharaka Nithi County on October 27, 2022