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Morning Star Kindergarten and community centre was established more than 15 years ago to provide a strong educational and caring environment for young children and to provide a venue for community participation and forums.
Our main focus is early child hood education normally up to age ten specializing in imparting young children with the basic literacy and numerical skills, which they need to expand on their education.
We do this by engaging skilled personnel with a natural enthusiasm for young children and a commitment, towards continuous training.
This has helped us to offer a qualitative service to the local community at moderate cost. Our pupils are also able to comfortably proceed to higher classes with all the basic skills of literacy and self, discipline needed. We hope in future to offer full primary education with the assistance of the local community and governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Education is the primary vehicle for self, emancipation, employment and wealth creation. We started our project to offer the basic foundation for further education because we noted that this segment of education was not well covered in our area.
Our objective is to add value to the local community and impart positively to the economic and social well being of our area by providing qualitative basic education.
We try to endeavour that the teachers we hire have adequate training and we are currently looking at the possibility of offering in service training to ECD teachers.
The change in government and the advent of free primary education has dramatically affected the situation especially in the lower income areas as parents are now more prone to take their children to school because prospects for them being able to study unhindered are now guaranteed.
The children's act of 2002 recognises that education is a human right that every child must enjoy and is protected by law. The NARC Government's introduction of free primary education is a commitment to achieve universal primary education by 2005 and Education for all by 2015.
Achieving universal primary education by ensuring all boys and girls complete primary school is also one of the millennium development goals pledged by the United Nations.
The government having agreed to this pledge considers the attainment of universal primary education as a development strategy because an educated population is vital to the overall development of the nation.
This has created a great opportunity, for schools due to increased, numbers and parents who are able to pay some amount may prefer to take their children to moderate fee paying or self financing formal or non-formal schools freeing public resources for those most in need.
The private and community based schools have thus tried to meet this increased demand by expanding, their infrastructure and hiring more teachers to meet the growing need for their services.
The strengthening of local non-formal schools by assisting in their infrastructural development and the training of teachers will also go a long way in the successful implementation of the programme.
Expansion and infrastructure development is not always realizable especially in lower income catchment areas and in some instances this unique opportunity may be lost or not fully utilised.
Our school finds itself in this type of situation of increased demand for our services without the requisite increase in revenues to enable us to provide the optimum situation we would like to provide for our early child development programme.
Our proposal in then intended to raise funds to assist us to provide better services to the children in our area by improving on our infrastructure and the general environment of our school.
Morning Star Kindergarten and community centre was established more than 15 years ago to provide a strong educational and caring environment for young children and to provide a venue for community participation and forums.
Our main focus is early child hood education normally up to age ten specializing in imparting young children with the basic literacy and numerical skills, which they need to expand on their education.
We do this by engaging skilled personnel with a natural enthusiasm for young children and a commitment, towards continuous training.
This has helped us to offer a qualitative service to the local community at moderate cost. Our pupils are also able to comfortably proceed to higher classes with all the basic skills of literacy and self, discipline needed. We hope in future to offer full primary education with the assistance of the local community and governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Education is the primary vehicle for self, emancipation, employment and wealth creation. We started our project to offer the foundation for further education as we noted that this segment of education was not well covered in our area.
Our objective is to add value to the local community and impart positively to the economic and social well being of our area by providing qualitative basic education.
We try to endeavour that the teachers we hire have adequate training and we are currently looking at the possibility of offering in service training to ECD teachers.
Parents in our vicinity have traditionally been encouraged to bring their children to our school where we focus on imparting in them a good moral foundation by serving as role models to them and ensuring school discipline.
We also guide and counsel pupils and discuss with parents areas where their assistance and input will bring about a positive outcome and we are constantly monitoring our activities for the purpose of improving on them with the view of catering to the need of every child.
With the change in government, and the advent of free primary education, the situation especially in the lower income areas has dramatically changed as parents are now more prone to take their children to school as prospects for them being able to study unhindered are now guaranteed.
The children's act of 2002 recognises that education is a human right that every child must enjoy and is protected by law. The NARC Government's introduction of free primary education is a commitment to achieve universal primary education by 2005 and Education for all by 2015.
Achieving universal primary education by ensuring all boys and girls complete primary school is also one of the millennium development goals pledged by the United Nations.
The government having agreed to this pledge considers the attainment of universal primary education as a development strategy because as mentioned earlier an educated population is vital to the overall development of the nation.
Free primary education has therefore removed a major hindrance to primary education especially in rural, arid and low income areas with double shifts i.e separate morning and afternoon classes having to be introduced in some schools to handle the huge increase in pupil numbers.
The situation was especially acute during the initiation of the free primary school programme with schools in high, density constituencies such as Embakasi and Kibera requiring, special assistance from education ministry officials. Case in, point were, Wangu primary school in Dandora and the famed Olympic primary school in the vicinity of Kibera both in Nairobi.
The situation now seems to have corrected itself and the programme appears to be making steady progress.
Demand has therefore increased for both primary and early child hood education institutions as parents are now more encouraged to invest in the two to three years of ECD necessary to enroll a child in primary school.
The popularity of the programme has also led to the stretching of state resources leading to over crowding in some areas and a search for alternate, formal and non-formal schools such as ours.
Providing universal primary education is thus a shared responsibility between government and communities. Communities are being encouraged to support non-formal education by utilising community and social centres and other locally available resources for the benefit of free primary education.
They are also expected to set up ECD centres and to employ and pay teachers working in those centres. Their neighbourhood should also be secure and conducive to learning with enough learning and playing facilities.
The involvement of stakeholders in implementation of the programme is a positive aspect as it mobilizes other partners to support it to its successful implementation.
This has created a great opportunity, for schools due to increased, numbers and parents who are able to pay some amount may prefer to take their children to moderate fee paying or self financing formal or non-formal schools freeing public resources for those most in need.
The private and community based schools have thus tried to meet this increased demand by expanding, their infrastructure and hiring more teachers to meet the growing need for their services.
The strengthening of local non-formal schools by assisting in their infrastructural development and the training of teachers will also go a long way in the successful implementation of the programme.
Expansion and infrastructure development is not always realizable especially in lower income catchment areas and in some instances this unique opportunity may be lost or not fully utilised.
Our school finds itself in this type of situation of increased demand for our services without the requisite increase in revenues to enable us to provide the optimum situation we would like to provide for our early child development programme.
Optimum early child hood development requires an optimum environment that is pleasant, secure and appealing to young minds. This requires both adequate playtime, study time and rest time in an enabling environment.
To achieve this it is essential to have a secure roomy and well, lighted compound with proper fencing to safeguard against undue interference in learning and children's recreation activities.
The classes should also be well lit with appropriate teaching manuals, nicely painted walls and sturdy furniture of the highest quality. It is also important to limit class numbers in order to offer each child adequate qualitative attention.
Dealing with young children also requires a rest room to guard against undue strain and general fatigue coupled with proper wash, rooms and supplies.
When all this facilities are in place enthusiastic teachers can really achieve a lot with the young minds.
In our situation we are fortunate enough to have amble play, grounds but we are unable to fully realise their potential due to trespassing and unregulated entry making it virtually impossible to maintain our flower garden field or the general play ground.
We therefore require proper fencing with iron gates to regulate the flow of children and strangers through our compound in a proper manner that will not disrupt our teaching program or compromise our security, resources or general peace of mind. This will also ease our work in maintaining a clean and tidy compound attractive to all segments of the community.
Being in a rather secluded, area proper security is of utmost importance, however we are as yet to install electricity at our centre limiting ourselves to day programs with a traditional approach.
We therefore require electrification to further secure our premises at night and to look into the potential of evening classes for young adults who may want to improve their skills, in the teaching or similar professions.
Electrification will also enable us to encompass radio and on occasion films as part of our teaching aids. This will provide a more conducive environment for participants.
The communal aspect of education also requires premises where adults, parents, teachers and other participants can meet to deliberate on their challenges, opportunities and solutions to their programmes.
So it is important to have well furnished and lighted rooms that can be used for such, purposes as this exchange of views will probably improve on the productivity of the participants and lead to greater understanding and motivation.
Properly maintained and well run facilities are probably more able to generate secondary income, which may be used to subsidize pupil costs and the running of school programmes such as feeding programmes and the paying of teacher salaries.
Good facilities attract demand for meetings, social gatherings, prayer, groups and festivities, which can generate substantial funds to compliment the minimal fee payments from pupils.
We would therefore like to request the following assistance from your department or associates in the following areas;
Fencing and securing the school property so as to improve on our security and enhancing our, school by ensuring a quiet, safe and clean environment. Where our pupils can learn and play unperturbed and where private incoming generating activities such as festivities, prayer groups and other social gatherings can be attracted to because of the guarantee to their privacy and security.
Fencing will also assist in general tidiness and help in attracting more children and encourage the current population to more extra curricular activities.
There is a general shortage of sport facilities and proper maintenance of those that are available, which is usually during school hours. This hinders opportune development of children’s recreational activities, which are very important for the development of a strong, body and mind and for the development of a positive outlook towards, affairs together with general, social interaction.
Provision of fencing at our school will help in enhancing the provision of sports and recreation activities at our school and better management of our sports programme. This will allow us to involve children in our community in our sports activities in a regulated manner, especially on weekends and public holidays when those facilities are most in demand.
Gates will also assist in the general security of the area especially at night as it will minimise unscheduled lanes which, criminal elements may occasionally exploit.
We also require assistance in infrastructure this will enable us to cater for a larger population and to serve better the current population.
The infrastructure that needs to be enhanced is the classrooms and cloakrooms. The classrooms need repainting so that they can appeal to and motivate pupils and also teaching aids to assist in better teaching methods.
The cloakrooms and kitchen also need to be refurbished to cater for a larger population and also to enhance efficiency for the school, feeding programme currently running in some schools in our area.
Our furniture is not replaced as often as we would like because of budgetary constraints and we could also do with assistance in this regard. Basically we require more sleeping boards, chairs and tables to increase our intake to an opportune 75 children and to establish an in, service course for early childhood teachers.
Electrification would also enable us to broaden our activities to areas such as ICT training, evening and specialized, vocational training. Electrification will also enhance our security and general security in the vicinity by offering security lighting during the night.
With your assistance in this, areas we are sure we will play a more active role in non formal and early childhood education and assist the nation towards its goal of universal primary education by the year 2005 and education for all by the year 2015.