Govt passes early childhood development policy

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KAMPALA - The government has okayed the Early Childhood Development (ECD) policy,  information minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi has said.

He says the policy is expected to among others, provide for the care and education of children aged between zero and five years.

Baryomunsi adds that the development was made necessary by science, which indicates that intellectual and cognitive development in humans is more pronounced during this period.

"That is why we are saying that nursery teaching should start at the age of three to five years so that at six years you can start primary. It is in the policy we have been considering and we cleared it, " he says.

He was on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, giving an update on the resolutions of Cabinet meeting that week. The meeting was chaired by President Yoweri Museveni and sat at State House Entebbe on Monday.

Baryomunsi said under the policy, regulation of ECD care and education will lie on the shoulders of the Government, while the provision of education will largely be left to non-state actors, including private persons and faith-based organisations.

He added that the Government will come in later to participate in the active provision of actual education as and when the national resource envelope grows.

"For the start, we shall not make it (education) compulsory, and where there is a need in the meantime government will start development of institutional arrangements (setting up schools) but we shall not go into it en masse as government," he said.

According to the minister, the arrangement will include setting up baby centres at government workplaces like the kind Parliament currently operates, where mothers in Parliament have baby care facilities. The facilities help them (MPs and Parliament staff) to go about their work as their babies are taken care of.

The ECD policy was presented in Cabinet by First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Mrs Janet Museveni.

"The reason there was a need to consider this policy was the scientific evidence available about human development which answers the question of when formal learning should start. We also took note of the positive correlation between quality early childhood care and future educational outcomes," he said.

He added that as per this research, access to quality education at an early age is associated with better incomes in adult life.