Effect of Media Resources Policy on ECDE Centers Management

International Journal of Scientific and Technological Research (IJSTER)
ISSN: 2617-6416 Vol. 1 (1) 109-119, November, 2018
www.oircjournals.org
109 | P a g e
Cheruiyot (2018) www.oircjournals.org
Effect of Utilization of Media Resources Policy
on Management of Public Early Childhood
Development Education Centers in Elgeyo-
Marakwet County, Kenya
Betty Jebet Cheruiyot
Moi University
Type of the Paper: Research Paper.
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How to Cite this Paper:
Cheruiyot, B. J. (2018). Effect of Utilization of Media Resources Policy on
Management of Public Early Childhood Development Education Centers in
Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. International Journal of Scientific and Technological
Research (IJSTER), 1 (1) 109-119.

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Effect of Utilization of Media Resources Policy
on Management of Public Early Childhood
Development Education Centers in Elgeyo-
Marakwet County, Kenya
Betty Jebet Cheruiyot
Moi University
Abstract
The fourth schedule of the Kenyan constitution
(2010) places Pre-Primary education and
child care facilities under the County
government. To effectively execute this role,
County governments in Kenya need to put in
place appropriate policy frame-work to
govern this programme of education. The
purpose of this study was to investigate the
utilization of media resources policy that
affect management of public ECDE centers in
Elgeyo-Marakwet County. A descriptive
survey research design was adopted and the systems theory guided this study. The study targeted 573 head-
teachers, 1146 ECDE teachers and 5 ECDE officials in the county. Random sampling was used to select 521
respondents of whom, 172 were head teachers, 344 were ECDE teachers and all the 5 ECDE officials were
purposely sampled. The data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedule and observation checklist.
The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and the findings presented using frequency
tables. The study found that infrastructure in the ECDE centers are of low quality and needs concerted efforts
between the County Government and the National Government to improve the learning facilities as well as the
physical facilities in the ECDE centers. The study established that there was a significant relationship between
utilization of infrastructure, teaching and learning resources policy and the management of public ECDE centers
in Elgeyo-Marakwet County ( 𝑥2
=768.807, df=81 and sig=0.000). There should also be deliberate efforts to
ensure that all ECDE centers have facilities which can be used by children with special needs or disabilities. The
learning compound should be made secure for the leaners and the teachers by constructing fences around the
facilities. The county government in collaboration with the national government should avail more physical
infrastructure, operationalize the school feeding program in all ECDE centers.
Introduction
The development of children in the early stages of
life has a strong effect on their progress later in life,
including further education and employment
(Christie et al., 2007). Therefore, there is need to
provide children with an environment that will
enable them to develop in all dimensions of life.
Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE)
is the bedrock and foundation for all other levels of
education system in the life of a child. According to
Morrison (2013), ECDE is a domain of education
theory which relates to the training of young
children (formally and informally) up to and until
the age of eight. This age bracket presents crucial
opportunities for the development of children’s
academic, behavioral, psycho-motor and social
competencies (Gordon and Browne, 2013). This is
the formative age of children. These skills have been
ARTICLE INFO
Received 29th September, 2018
Received in Revised Form 19th October, 2018
Accepted 1st November, 2018
Published online 8th November 2018
Key words: Utilization, Media Resources, Early
Childhood, Development Education Centres,

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shown by researchers to be vital for later academic
success of the child and thus ECDE is crucial in
stimulating child development and success in later
life of schooling and also in the labour market
(Wortham and Hardin, 2015).
Early childhood education thus should focus on
children's learning through play, based on the
research and philosophy of Jean Piaget (Piaget,
2013). The challenge thus lies in the integration of
the various play activities and play resources to
achieve a holistic development of the children
encompassing all three learning domain; cognitive,
affective and psychomotor. This fact poses a
challenge of provision of the various kinds of play
infrastructure to the ECDE centers by the various
stakeholders the key provider being the national and
county governments. All sorts of childhood play,
from fantasy to rough-and-tumble, have a crucial
role in children’s development (Fromberg, 2002).
Play has been described as the lens through which
kids experience their world, and the world of others
(Ailwood, 2003). Deprivation of play to children
can cause both short and long-term deleterious
effects.
Different kinds of play require different levels of
cognitive, social, mental and physical
sophistication, and that is why different types of
play should be featured in ECD canters to cater for
different stages of childhood development
(Bandura, 2001). Taking a lead in showing the
important role of outdoor play in the development
of social skills, several studies have been carried.
Psychiatrist Stuart Brown (2009) discovered that the
absence of social play during childhood stages was
a common link among murderers in prison. They
lacked the normal give-and-take skills necessary for
learning to understand others’ emotions and
intentions, and the self-control that one must learn
to play successfully with others. All these activities
can be done if educational policies provide room for
play in educational institutions. The facilities should
also be available to enable the learners play and
therefore interact well with each other in the pre-
schools.
Even with community involvement and ownership,
large-scale implementation of ECDE could not have
been achieved without government involvement.
Impetus was provided by the successful
implementation of several ECDE service and
infrastructure delivery frame-works such as the 10-
year (1972–1982) Pre-school Education Project
(PEP), supported by the Bernard van Leer
Foundation (Moncrieff, 1993); Presidential Circular
Number One in 1980 education; and reports by
Gachathi and Kamunge (Republic of Kenya, 1976;
1988) that emphasized the importance of quality
service and infrastructure provision in ECDE
centers. Before the promulgation of the new
constitution, the national ECDE service and
infrastructure provision system established by the
government was decentralized and, within the
Ministry of Education, program co-ordination
occurred at all levels of government. At the national
level, co-ordination was located in three units: the
ECDE unit of the Directorate of Basic Education,
the ECDE unit of the Directorate of Quality
Assurance and Standards and the ECD section in the
Basic Education Division at the Kenya Institute of
Education (KIE). The latter unit was the one tasked
with the role of determining the much needed
resources and services and facilitating their
provision.
At the Provincial level, the Provincial Director of
Education co-ordinates all programs including Early
Childhood and Development Education. At the
district level, it is the District Education Officer who
co-ordinates all programs, but with the support of a
District Centre for Early Childhood Education
(DICECE) officer who specifically oversees the
District ECD programming and, supported by other
staff, is responsible for training, curriculum
development and research. At the community level,
most ECD centers have management committees
that oversaw daily management. Decentralization of
the ECD program had played a critical role in
enhanced accountability, sustained community
participation and increased access to services by
marginalized communities. Government
commitment had led to the inclusion of ECDE as
one of 23 investments in the Kenya Education
Sector Support Programme (KESSP), a sector-wide
approach to planning that focuses on identified
priorities developed through extensive consultation
(Republic of Kenya, 2005). It has also led to
leveraging of resources to finance community
support grants, which were used to assist in the
procurement of different services and infrastructure
in the ECD centres. However, with the promulgation
of the new constitution and the subsequent
devolution of the ECDE program, the management
of the centers and thus procurement of the different

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infrastructure for instruction now lies in the hands
of the County governments.
The 2010 Constitution of Kenya is supreme law in
the country’s educational frame-work. It has
provisions that have various implications on the
education sector. Article 43(f) of the constitution
states that every person has a right to education,
53(i) (b) every child has a right to free and
compulsory basic education (Cheserek and
Mugalavai, 2012). The education sector is also
governed by the Basic Education Act 2013 and the
Sessional Paper No. 14 of 2012 on reforming
education and training sectors in Kenya. The Basic
Education Act 2013 aims at giving effect to article
53 of the constitution and to promote and regulate
free and compulsory basic education, provide for
accreditation, and registration, governance and
management of institutions of basic education. The
Basic Education Act 2013 of the constitution places
Pre-Primary education and child care facilities
under the County governments (Eisemon, 2012).
These roles are further specified by section 26 of the
act which states that “the roles of the county
government will include the provision of funds
required for the development of the necessary
infrastructure for institutions of basic education and
training used for conducting pre-primary education,
childcare facilities home craft centers and village
polytechnics. Unfortunately, in the absence of
clearly spelled-out policies governing the provision
of these infrastructures, many ECDE centers have
continued to suffer due to lack of the much needed
assortment of teaching and learning resources. It’s
on this basis that, this research sought to investigate
the utilization of media resources policy that affect
management of public ECDE centers in Elgeyo-
Marakwet County. The hypothesis tested was:
HO1: there is no significant relationship between
utilization of media resources policy and the
Marakwet County.
Methodology
This study was guided by systems theory as
espoused by Bertalantfy (1968). This is a theory that
concerns systems, wholes and organizations.
According to Herylighten and Juslyn (1992), the
world is made of interacting components which
have properties and viewed as a whole and do not
exist within any of the smaller units. Systems theory
reveals a multi-faceted world which comprises sub-
systems within systems within environment, all of
which are regulated through a set of relationships.
The systems theory was relevant to this study as it
sought to understand the level of expertise of the
staff in implementing policy on the management of
public ECDE centers.
In order to meet the aims and objectives of the study,
a descriptive survey research design was adopted.
The target population for this study comprised
ECDE officials, all the head-teachers and teachers
in all the public ECDE’s in Elgeyo-Marakwet
County. The county has a target population of 573
ECDE centers, 1146 ECDE teachers, 573 head
teachers and seven ECDE officials (Elgeyo-
Marakwet DICECE, 2015). The study used
stratified sampling to stratify Elgeyo- Marakwet
County into sub-counties that form 155 ECDE
schools from Keiyo North, 144 ECDE schools from
Keiyo south, 118 ECDE schools from Marakwet
East and 156 ECDE schools from Marakwet West.
Simple random sampling was used to select 47
ECDE schools from Keiyo North, 43 from Keiyo
South, 35 from Marakwet East and 47 from
Marakwet West sub-counties. Simple random
sampling was used to select 2 ECDE teachers from
each of the selected schools. This implied that 344
ECDE teachers and 172 head teachers participated
in the study. The 5 ECDE officials were purposely
included in the study sample. Data collection was
done using a combination of sets of questionnaire,
interview guides and checklists. Data was analysed
using descriptive and inferential statistics. Chi-
square test was used to find the relationship between
the variables investigated. Data was presented using
frequency tables.
Findings and Discussions
Teaching Experience of Respondents
Teaching experience in terms of years provides a
variety of exposures to teachers. It also determines
the quantity and quality of competences a teacher
has. Teachers who are more experienced in early
childhood development education have positive
relationship with their ECDE children as compared
to their colleagues who are less experienced (Gakii,
2003). Experience plays a very vital role in
understanding the kind of pupils a teacher is
handling. This enables such a teacher to select
appropriate approaches and suitable method to
teaching. In this study, teacher experience was
investigated and the findings tabulated in Table 1.

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Table 1: Experience of ECDE teachers
Number of Years Taught
Frequency Percentage
<1 year
1-5 years
5-10 years
11-15 years
Over 16years
38
144
122
70
142
7.4
27.9
23.6
13.6
27.5
Total 516 100.0
Source: Field data
From the findings tabulated in the table, it is found
that out of the total number of teachers involved in
the study, 7.4% of ECDE teachers had taught for
less than 1 year while 27.9% of the teachers had
taught between 1-5 years, 23.6% of the teachers had
taught for 5-10 years, 13.6% of the teachers had
taught 11-15 years, 27.5% of the teachers had taught
over 16 years. The results implied that most of the
teachers were experienced hence the reason for
evident increased enrollment of preschoolers in this
study. Teaching experience provides a variety of
experiences to teachers in terms of years and
exposures. It also determines the quality and
quantity of competences a teacher has. These
teachers have more positive relationships with
ECDE children as compared to those colleagues
who are less experienced (Gakii, 2003). Experience
plays a vital role in understanding the kind of pupils
a teacher is handling. Beeby (1966) concurs by
arguing that many years of practice are meant to
present a variety of experience to teachers.
Similar results were reported by Murundu,
Chisikwa, Indoshi, Okwara and Otieno (2012) who
conducted a study on teacher based factors
influencing the implementation of Early Childhood
Development and Education (ECDE) curriculum in
Gem District. The results revealed that 4.6% of the
teachers had a teaching experience of below 2 years,
23.1% had a teaching experience of 2-5 years, while
the remaining teachers had 72.3% with a teaching
experience of five years and above. Gillian, (2010)
in his study on challenges faced in the provision of
quality of Early Childhood Education in Kitui
District. Results revealed that (50%) of the ECDE
teachers had teaching experience of over 5years,
(40%) of teachers had teaching experience of
between 1 and 5 years, while (10%) of the teachers
had less than 1 year of teaching experience. Mudaki
(2011) found that (84.4%) of the pre- primary school
teachers had worked for two years and above, while
the remaining (15.6%) had less than 1 year of
working experience. This clearly actualize the fact
that experience of the ECDE teachers plays a great
role in performance and well nurturing of the
preschoolers. However majority of teachers also
lack crucial skills to handle and facilitate the
learning of children. Interviews with teachers
indicated that they lack knowledge and skills in a
number of areas that they would like to be addressed
to enable them to implement in the policy of
curriculum. They also need additional and new
skills in how to offer comprehensive holistic ECDE
services.
Utilization of infrastructure, teaching and
learning resources policy
The researcher sought to find out from the
respondents their honest opinion on some
statements relating to utilization of infrastructure,
teaching and learning resources policy on ECDE.
The respondents were to indicate by ticking in the
appropriate check box by stating they strongly
agree, agree, undecided, disagree or strongly
disagree. All the 516 respondents answered the
questions. The responses were coded as 1, 2, 3, 4,
and 5 respectively for purposes of analysis only. The
numbers have no other value other than for coding.
Table 2 shows the mean of the responses together
with their standard deviations.
Table 2: Utilization of infrastructure, teaching and learning resources policy
Statement Mean Std. Deviation
Classrooms are enough for all the children in the centre 3.35 .997
Enrolment of children has overwhelmed they available classroom capacity 2.36 .841

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Source: Field data
From the table 2 we find out that the respondents
agreed that there exist school feeding programs in
the schools (2.42). There was disagreement on the
statements that; pre – school compounds were
fenced (3.45), Materials were regularly serviced and
maintained (3.55), toilet ratio is as recommended
(3.69) and classrooms are accessible to children
with special needs (3.81). This may be because
classrooms are not very accessible for use by
children with special needs since they don’t have
ramps, rails and low door handles making the
children with disabilities to be disadvantaged over
the other preschoolers. It was generally established
that the school have very poor infrastructure and
urgently need support and capital for development
of classrooms and furniture acquisition. Most of the
communities are poor and very uninterested in
supporting the school and blame the government for
not taking special interest in community. The ECDE
centers have not been able to actively engage
parents and explain what free education mean and
expected parents’ roles.
Moreover the government has not been very timely
in disbursing the funds allocated to the school,
delaying procurement and payments of money
meant for development and infrastructure. Since
Kenya gained independence in 1963, however,
access to early learning and care services has
expanded massively. From a low base, the numbers
of children enrolled in centers leapt to over 800,000
in 1990, 1.1 million in 2000 and 1.7 million in 2008
(Republic of Kenya, 2009). The number of early
childhood development centers (ECDC) shot up to
15,469 in 1990, 26,294 in 2000 and 37,954 in 2008.
Kenya’s Pre-school gross enrolment ratio (GER)
grew year on year from 2003 to 2008 to 60.2%
(Ministry of Education, 2009), one of the highest
growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. The greatest
expansion in early childhood education programs
came shortly after Kenya's independence in 1963, in
response to the late President Jomo Kenyatta's call
for Harambee ("pulling together"), which promoted
community participation for accelerated education
development (Githuthwa, 2013). The motto of
Adequate lighting system within the classroom 3.27 1.081
Floors are well designed and cemented for easy
mobility of children
3.00 1.199
Classrooms are accessible for use by children with special needs
and have ramps, rails and low door handles
3.81 1.022
Desks and chairs are enough for all the children 3.26 1.019
Teacher`s chair, table and cupboard are available in the ECDE
classroom
2.99 1.017
School provides safe drinking water for drinking and
washing hands
2.57 .920
Pre-school have toilets/latrine for boy-child, girl-child and teachers 2.52 .968
Toilet is specifically designed for young children 3.35 1.103
Toilet child ratio is as recommended (1:25) 3.69 .973
Toilet teacher is as recommended(1:12) 2.50 .828
Pre-school have toilets for children with special needs 3.72 1.166
Adequate play and learning equipment within the pre-school 3.34 1.199
Equipment are safe and securely fixed to protect children
from injury
3.19 1.061
Materials are regularly serviced and maintained 3.55 .995
Outdoor play area is large enough for children to play and
run around safely
2.71 .941
Pre-school compound is fenced off and have a lockable gate for
the security of the pupils
Pre-school compound is regularly cleared, clean and maintained
3.45
2.91
1.161
1.029
ECDE centre has a children feeding program 2.42 1.005

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Harambee has been evident ever since in the
development of many self-help projects, including
community-funded, community-built Pre-schools
and other services. Such community-supported Pre-
schools still far outnumber those built by the
government or donors; approximately 80 percent of
Kenyan Pre-schools are run by local communities.
Level of infrastructure since devolution shows
responses
The level of infrastructure in the schools was
established. Infrastructure includes buildings, fields,
teaching and learning resources, ablution facilities
among others. The table 3 shows the responses on
level of infrastructure since devolution.
Table 3: Level of infrastructure since devolution
Level Frequency Percentage
Poor 317 61.4
Fair 155 30.0
Good 44 8.5
Total 516 100.0
Source: Field data
From the table above the level of infrastructure in
the study since devolution is termed as poor with
317 respondents and a percentage of 61.4%. Those
whose response was fair were 155 with a percentage
of 30%.while those who responded that the level of
infrastructure was good were 44 (8.5%). With the
results above, it shows that many of the respondents
believed that the level of infrastructure has not
improved since devolution. This evidently shows
that most of our ECDE centers have the same
infrastructure that were before even devolution
which should not be the case either since devolution
was meant to bring more development in ECDE
centers. In this study, upon mapping the condition
of infrastructure in the ECDE centers, the researcher
looked at the conditions of classrooms, toilets, water
facilities, play and learning equipment. This was
basically in terms of availability, good condition and
adequacy.
The analysis reveals that in the centers sampled, the
classrooms and physical environment in general are
not in good condition and not suitable for the young
children learning and safety. Most of the ECDE
centers, public and community ones in particular, do
not meet the national Early Childhood Development
Service Standard and guidelines. Most of the centers
are squeezed and dilapidated. Most are subject to
renovation or new construction. Apart from being in
a poor state, they are also characterized by poor
ventilation and insufficient lighting. Observation
also during the visit to the school confirmed that
about 80% of the school compound and physical
environments do not look good and attractive for all
small children in the ECDE centers. Very few
schools have trees and well-kept grass and sand or
children to play. The classrooms are small and not
well equipped and arranged compared to most
private ECDE centers in urban areas. An ECDE
center should have toilets/latrine for boys, girls and
teachers and those designed or children with special
needs.
In this study, sanitary facilities are generally in poor
state in the school in Elgeiyo-Marakwet County.
The sanitary facilities are not taken seriously by the
stake holders, even in a situation where an NGO has
funded the building of and ECDE classroom. The
storage condition for the snacks that children carry
to school is also very poor if not a health hazard.
Most ECDE have no kitchen or storage facilities,
thus the food boxes that children carry to school are
squeezed into some corners of the children’s
classroom. About 99 per cent of all the
public/community ECDE centers share toilet
facilities with primary school. Besides the facilities
are located far from the classrooms about 200Metres
away. These facilities are not suitable for 3-5 years
old children and worse still for children with special
needs. Example of physically and mentally
challenged children.
Schools feeding program
School feeding program is a government initiative
in conjunction with other partners, to provide food
to children in school. The feeding program,
especially for children in early years is important
because children are motivated to attend school and
get nutrition as well. The research sought to find out
the state of affairs in the ECDE centers as far as
feeding program is concerned. The findings are
presented in Table 4.

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Table 4: Existence of school feeding program
Response Frequency Percentage
No 373 72.3
Yes 143 27.7
Total 516 100.0
Source: Field Data
The study found out that majority of the
respondents, out of the 516 respondents,
373(72.3%) indicated that their ECDE centers had
no feeding program while 143(27.7%) had feeding
programs. Feeding program to majority of the
respondents said that feeding programme in the
centre enhance enrolment to a very great extent. The
ECD service Standard Guidelines state that “ECDE
centers shall provide children with a snack,
preferably enriched porridge at break time. Where
the center is full day, in addition to the snack, lunch
comprising balanced diet shall be provided.” (RoK,
2003).meeting this objective is another big
challenge the ECDE subsector is facing.
In private or community schools where there is a
formal feeding program comprising a balanced diet
(enriched porridge, beans, rice, meat, fish, and fruit),
such a program is expensive and is optional. The
cost ranges from kshs.600 to 2500 across the county.
It was indicated by head teachers/teachers that such
a program is optional to parents. Thus those who
cannot afford opt to be left out of it hence
disadvantageous to other pupils. On regards to
enrollment also, majority of the respondents
indicated that most of the parents are always willing
to bring their children in the centre where dietary
meal are provided Other respondents fairly agreed
that Most of the parents enquire about the meals
provided to make a decision of whether to enroll the
children in the centre or not. Further, according to
the study findings; School feeding program increase
pupils participation in class assignment duties and
discussion, there are only a few meals provided
during the day hence pupil do not fully participate
in class work rendering to low performance, the
healthy pupils in the centre are always active and
perform well in the exam hence feeding program is
important also towards the performance of pupils in
the centre.
The study found out that majority of the respondents
said that there were transfer cases in the ECDE
centers. Majority of them indicated that most
parents take their children to private schools citing
many reasons which range from poor performance
in public early childhood education centres, poor
teaching methods, lack of skilled staff in public
centers, and to a great extent due to lack of feeding
programmes in the ECDE centers.
Playground availability for play by pupils
Play for children are important for their physical and
social wellbeing. Availability of a playground for
children in the ECDE centers was established. The
responses are tabulated in table 5.
Table 5: Availability of playground
Response Frequency Percentage
No 373 72.3
Yes 143 27.7
Total 516 100.0
Source: Field data
In the table 5,the number of those who say there is
availability of playground are 143 (27.7%) while
those who say there is no play ground in the ECDE
centers are 373 (72.3%). This shows that most
ECDE centers do not have well-structured
playgrounds. Playgrounds provide crucial and vital
opportunities for children to play. There is
substantial research showing the clear link between
play and brain development, motor-skills, and social
capabilities. All learning—emotional, social, motor
and cognitive—is accelerated, facilitated, and
fueled by the pleasure of play. Playgrounds that
promote different types of play are vital for a child’s
cognitive, emotional, physical, and social

117 | P a g e
development the more specific ways in which
playgrounds and play equipment, similar to those
being installed in Shasta County, promote growth
are described below.
Child’s play is not just all fun and games. The act of
play is a crucial component in the successful growth
of the brain, body, and intellect. Playing promotes
brain development and helps lay the neural grid for
a successful mind through repetitive play actions
that reinforce that grid. Playing promotes physical
success by allowing the child to explore, test, and
expand the limits of the growing body. And playing
promotes social, intellectual, and oral skills by
allowing the child to interact with their peers and
environment. Playgrounds by their very name are
grounds on which to play. But they are more than
that, playgrounds provide a safe environment
designed specifically to foster and enhance the 4
opportunities for a child to play alone, with a
caregiver, or with other children. Given the
importance of play in the development of a child,
any space which gives a child free reign to do just
that should be seen a crucial component in a child’s
life. Playground equipment and space can meet the
needs of children 0-5 by providing different
opportunities to engage in appropriate
developmental play. Playgrounds are, it is important
not to forget, fun for children and this fun will have
lasting positive effects on their development.
Literature on outdoor play indicates that children
learn many things while playing outdoors. Learning
outdoors depends on whether the environment
provides affordances that will enable children to
develop cognitively. Results from this study
indicate that very few teachers and head teachers
have an idea on the importance of outdoor play
environment as a good resource for children’s
learning. Results from the checklists of children’s
development showed that more than half of the ECD
centers had plants in the outdoor play environment.
However, they were scattered and few. These plants
were mainly flowers and other small plants that
grew naturally. Children can examine the various
leaves, flowers, pods and seeds thus distinguishing
them in terms of color, texture and smell. These are
good opportunities to construct scientific
knowledge. Children also engage in activities such
as sorting, matching and ordering which are
important basic mathematics concepts.
Information collected from the checklist showed
that ten centers had plants within their outdoor
environment. This means that during play time
children can observe touch , smell and experiment
on the different types of plants, thus creating
knowledge that form the basis of scientific
knowledge and skills in later years. There were no
plants in the outdoor play environment in ten ECD
centers. Therefore children did not have the
opportunity to learn anything about plants in these
ECDE centers.
Seeds were also seen in very few ECDE centers. The
seeds can be used by children to do counting,
sorting, ordering and matching important activities.
These are very important concept in mathematics
activities. Children can also make patterns and from
shapes using seeds thus acquiring a good foundation
for mathematics at an early stage of learning circle.
Over one hundred ECD centers had no trace of a
seed in the entire outdoor play environment. Pearson
Chi-Square was computed to test the significant
relationship between utilization of media resources
policy and the management of public ECDE centers
in Elgeyo-Marakwet County:
HO1: there is no significant relationship between
utilization of infrastructure, teaching and learning
resources policy and the management of public
ECDE centers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.
Table 6 presents the findings on Pearson Chi-Square
computation of the significant relationship between
utilization of infrastructure, teaching and learning
resources policy and the management of public
ECDE centers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.
Pearson Chi-Square computation of the significant
relationship between Utilization of infrastructure,
teaching and learning resources policy and the
Marakwet County. Table 6 shows the results of the
test.
Table 6: Chi- Square test
Test Value Degree of Freedom Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 768.807a
81 .000

Table 6 indicates that the calculated Chi-square was
768.807 at 81 degrees of freedom with a
significance value p=0.000 <0.05. The calculated p
value was less than the critical value 0.05. This
shows that there was significant relationship
between Utilization of infrastructure, teaching and
learning resources policy and the management of
public ECDE centers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.
Evidently, in terms of infrastructure as the number
of preschoolers is increasing, facilities also should
be improved to face-lift the resources and give a
conducive environment for learning.
Correlating the findings, the Government
commitment had led to the inclusion of ECDE as
one of 23 investments in the Kenya Education
Sector Support Programme (KESSP), a sector-wide
approach to planning that focuses on identified
priorities developed through extensive consultation
(Republic of Kenya, 2005). It has also led to
leveraging of resources to finance community
support grants, which were used to assist in the
procurement of different services and infrastructure
in the ECD centers. However, with the promulgation
of the new constitution and the subsequent
devolution of the ECDE program, the management
of the centers and thus procurement of the different
infrastructure for instruction now lies in the hands
of the County governments. Unfortunately, in the
absence of clearly spelled-out policies governing the
provision of these infrastructures, many ECDE
centers have continued to suffer due to lack of the
much needed assortment of teaching and learning
resources. Hence this finding was coherently
articulate to the fact that teaching and learning
resources should be well established to ensure an
environment for preschoolers to have a fair and
conducive study.
In Kenya, although different ministries are expected
to provide direct and/or indirect services to children,
the extent to which such ministries coordinate their
various activities that target children and run joint
programmes/projects remains one of the biggest
challenges facing realization of children’s rights in
the country. Stakeholders interviewed indicate that
coordination is currently still difficult. This is
because the current administrative/management
context, where accountability for meeting
measurable objectives is restricted to specific
individual ministries frameworks. Respondents
argue that partnership frameworks for ECDE
services is still lacking because it’s a new concept
and way of offering services to children.
Due to this disjointed and uncoordinated
programmes and activities, children care and
development in the country faces major
challenges/problems including the following: child
health and nutrition, limited or poor quality of
ECDE service provision to the under 8 year old
children, child labor, child abuse, rape and high rate
of mortality rates.
Further, the analysis shows that the classes were
large and overcrowded. Also the numbers of
teachers were few and children shared facilities and
some even lacked essential facilities such as chairs,
play equipment, feeding program and learning
resources. In addition to our findings because of
high enrollment of preschoolers teachers cannot
apply the child-centered method because of the large
class sizes and the limited learning resources in most
of the ECDE centres. This does not concur with
(NAEYC, 1991), which asserts that there should be
one teacher for every seven to ten children and no
more than twenty per classroom.
Conclusion
The research sought to find out the availability and
level of development of resources in the ECDE
centers. It was noted that teacher chairs and tables
were available, however, the teaching learning
resources were inadequate and even the available
resources were not regularly maintained. Some of
the ECDE centers were not fenced and have no
lockable gates. The playgrounds, which are
important for children were found to be inadequate
in the ECDE centers. The research found out that the
ECDE centers did not provide for children with
special needs because there were no special toilets
as well ramps leading to class rooms which can be
used by children with disabilities.
From the findings, it was noted some ECDE centers
had feeding programs for the children which is a
motivating factor for the children to attend school as
well as maintain good health. The teacher pupil ratio
was found to be wanting in that there were few
teachers to cater for the enrolled pupils. Further a
conclusion made from this study is that there existed
relationship between utilization of infrastructure,
teaching and learning resources policy and the
Marakwet County. The study findings revealed that
utilization of infrastructure teaching and learning
resources policy played a significant role in
effective management of public ECDE centers. The
null hypothesis (HO2: there is no significant
relationship between utilization of media resources
in Elgeyo – Marakwet County) was tested and
𝑥2
=768.807, df = 81 and sig=0.000 at significance
level of 0.05 was found. Therefore the null
hypothesis was rejected which implied that there
was a significant relationship between utilization of
infrastructure, teaching and learning resources

119 | P a g e
in Elgeyo-Marakwet County. In this study it is
concluded that ECDE utilization of infrastructure,
teaching and learning resources is inevitable for
effective and proper management of ECDE centres.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following
recommendations were made:
i. The ECDE administrators in collaboration
with parents and both the County and
National Government should ensure that
all ECDE centers have physical facilities to
cater for children with special needs
ii. School heads and managers should allocate
the limited resources appropriately in order
to ensure that structural aspects are
improved to the required level. In addition,
they should make sure play grounds,
teaching and learning materials are
available for effective teaching and
learning.
iii. It is recommended that the County
Government and the national Government
through MOE should allocate more
financial resources to ensure that structural
and process features of ECDE centres are
improved.
References
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Cheserek G. J. & Mugalavai, V. K. (2012). Challenges and reforms facing Kenyan education system in the 21st
century: integrating the principles of vision 2030 and Constitution 2010. Journal of Emerging Trends in
Educational Research and Policy Studies, 3(4), 471-478.
Eisemon, T. O. (2014). Benefiting from basic education, school quality and functional literacy in Kenya. Elsevier.
Fromberg, D. P. (2002). Play and meaning in early childhood education. Allyn & Bacon.
Githuthwa, H. W. (2013). An investigation into the problems faced in the development of early childhood
education in Kenya: a case of Lari, Kiambu County (Doctoral dissertation).
Gordon, A., & Browne, K. (2013). Beginnings & beyond: Foundations in early childhood education. Cengage
Learning.
Ministry of Education Science and Technology. (2005). The Background Report of Kenya, report for the
UNESCO/OECD Early Childhood Policy Review Project. Nairobi: MOE.
Ministry of Education. (2009). Education Facts and Figures 2008-09. Nairobi: MOE
Wortham, S. C., & Hardin, B. J. (2015). Assessment in early childhood education. Pearson Publishers
Mudaki, J. B. (2011). Supervision of early childhood development education Programmes implications for
provision of quality preschool Education in Nairobi Province . Unpublished MA Thesis Kenyatta
University
Murundu, Chisikwa, Indoshi, Okwara & Otieno (2012) Teacher based factors influencing implementation of
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