The Aga Khan Foundation has stepped up efforts to improve early childhood development in Uganda.
The Aga Khan Foundation is one of the private sector partners with government that has established a number of community based pre-schools educating at least 65,000 children across Uganda. But increasingly there is need for partnership and sharing among eduction think-tanks to find ways of strengthening the programme.
During a meeting at the Victoria Serena Hotel in Kigo, Nazeem Mohamed, the foundation’s regional chair said that many privately established centres lack professional teachers to handle the children.
The director of basic and secondary education in the Ministry of Education, Nsumba Lyazi who officially opened the conference at Serena Hotel Kigo said out of 6.1 million children in Uganda, only half are accessing early childhood learning.
Government now plans to make early childhood learning compulsory for all primary schools. The sensitization of parents is also critical for them to appreciate the expectation and outcome of the programme.