Assessment of Feeding Program in ECD Enrolment in Eldas Sub-County, Wair County, Kenya

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume II, Issue VII, July 2018 | ISSN 2454-6186

Assessment of Feeding Program in ECD Enrolment in Eldas Sub-County, Wair County, Kenya

Timira Diyad Elmi, Mohamed Diyad Elmi

Abstract: – In Eldas sub county most of the parents are poor, hence they rely on feeding program given to the children while at school. This helps the retention of children in school. Children from poor and low income families highly depend on the feeding programme. This lead to increased enrollment in schools and in turn upsurge performance since there is no temporary dropouts from school. Feeding program helps children’s physical growth, intellectual and holistic development. This paper investigates, asses and determine the effect of feeding program on pre-school enrollment in Eldas sub-county. The sub-county located in northeastern part of Kenya has yearned for ECD development since the establishment of the sub-county system. The performance being the subject in any school, Eldas thrived when feeding program was heavily implemented and in thus ECD enrollment raised practically. The National School Feeding Council launched a SFP in 1966 with an objective of increasing enrolment and attendance rates for pre- primary and primary school children The paper targeted two primary schools with preschools Two head teachers, two pre-school teachers, hundred pre-school children and hundred pre-school parents were selected using descriptive survey design and Questionnaires. 60% of the head teachers were male while majority (80%) of the pre-school teachers were female. This shows that most schools were headed by more male head teachers than female head teachers while most Pre-school teachers were female. There were more Male head teachers because there are more male teachers and most of them end up becoming head teachers. There were also more female pre-school teachers because most men do not like teaching pre-schools as it deals with small children who require a lot of attention which can be well provided by the female teachers. It established that 60% of the respondents indicated that availability of school feeding program influence enrollment. This was followed by those who indicated that it influences to some extent (30%). To address the problem of feeding in primary schools, the government of Kenya launched a Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, aimed at feeding some 550,000 schoolchildren previously fed by WFP, starting in the first term of 2009 (Ministry of Education, 2010). This has tremendously increased the enrolment of pre-school children to around 45%. It was confirmed that there is a significant association between feeding program and enrollment.

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