In Kwale, Kenya, a caregiver reads from a storybook borrowed from a mini-library that was established by AKF's Reading for Children programme.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
In Kwale, Kenya, a caregiver reads from a storybook borrowed from a mini-library that was established by …
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Students at the Aga Khan Academy, Nairobi - Junior School work together on a science experiment.
AKDN / Georgina Goodwin
Students at the Aga Khan Academy, Nairobi - Junior School work together on a science experiment.
AKDN / Georgina Goodwin
Madrasa Pre-School Programme Rahma Nursery School, Mombasa, Kenya
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Madrasa Pre-School Programme Rahma Nursery School, Mombasa, Kenya
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Early Childhood Development project in Baba Dogo Ward in Nairobi, Kenya.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Early Childhood Development project in Baba Dogo Ward in Nairobi, Kenya.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Madrasa Pre-School Programme Rahma Nursery School, Mombasa, Kenya.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Madrasa Pre-School Programme Rahma Nursery School, Mombasa, Kenya.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
This page is also available inKenya | Early Childhood Development
Early childhood development (ECD) is a priority for AKDN in East Africa. The programmes help parents and communities provide a positive and early start for their children. They ignite children's potential for lifelong adaptability, innovation and communication skills; develop their problem-solving capacity and impart in them the values of responsible citizenship and respect for diversity.
48,000
The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) reaches 48,000 young children in Kenya
Aga Khan Education Service, Kenya
The Aga Khan Education Service (AKES), Kenya operates four nursery schools, in Eldoret, Kisumu, Mombasa and Nairobi. Children from two to six years of age have access to an integrated, international or national curriculum that prepares them for the transition to primary school. The schools aim to provide high-quality educational experiences within learning spaces that support pre-academic skills development, are contextually relevant and promote best practice.
AKES, Kenya values the opportunity to collaborate with the community and is engaged in initiatives that support quality teaching and learning environments in government schools in underprivileged communities in Kenya. In partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), AKES, Kenya nursery teachers are supporting a community-based project working collaboratively with teachers from community schools to discover solutions that will build teaching capacity and provide gender-responsive and inclusive education to young children.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Madrasa Early Childhood Programme
AKF’s Madrasa Early Childhood Programme supports the creation of locally-owned early childhood centres in Kenya. It was first implemented in the 1980s in Mombasa, after Muslim leaders from Kenya’s coastal region requested assistance in improving the overall level of educational achievement of their children. AKF concluded that early childhood education was the key, and worked with local educators, community leaders and parents to create four pilot Madrasa preschools in Mombasa, Kenya.
These pilot schools would later specialise in a holistic approach to early childhood development guided by a curriculum that integrated key religious values and teachings. It was a model that would later be replicated throughout other schools in East Africa to benefit tens of thousands of students, teachers and community members from all faiths.
The Programme, anchored by Madrasa Resource Centres (MRC), has assisted poor communities to establish, manage and support sustainable, quality preschools offering holistic development opportunities to young children. The Centres train teachers and school management committee members, and deliver continuous on-site support. AKF promotes a deeper understanding of the importance of ECD amongst parents, caregivers and other community members to create demand for and active engagement in quality ECD services.
AKF also engages actively with government and relevant civil society organisations in policy creation and sharing of good practices regarding young children’s education and development. It is increasing the coordination of ECD service delivery through technical workshops for policy makers, government and civil society practitioners. Its aim is to enable holistic child development for all children under six.
The Programme delivers professional development courses to frontline pre-primary teachers, ECD caregivers and health workers. This improves the delivery of holistic ECD and play-based learning in preschools and health centres.
Forty years on, the programme serves 10,000 children annually across over 200 ECD centres in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A million children have attended the programme and almost 8,000 teachers have been trained.
Kenya Graduate Association has established an endowment fund which provides dividends to member communities to sustainably improve the quality of education. The Madrasa Resource Centre in Kenya has also linked communities to credit facilities such as the Kenya Women Trust Fund and the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance, which help successful applicants start up income-generating agricultural or retail activities.