Mombasa governor Abdulswamad Nassir (pictured) has directed that all stalled Early Childhood Education (ECDE) centres be completed as part of a fresh campaign to upgrade early childhood education in the county.

He announced that his administration will invest in nursery education in its quest to improve education standards.

He also signaled that he would be pushing to increase the number of nursery schools across all sub-counties as well as the employment of more teachers in the next financial year.

“I have instructed the Cabinet to look for areas where we can expand community schools so that we can improve education,” said Nassir.

Currently, there are 98 public ECD centres in Mombasa, which accommodate slightly more than  10,000 pupils. He said the aim of introduction of feeding programmess in the schools was to improve the transition rate from home to ECD and eventually from primary to secondary  school.

 Nassir said the county will sponsor publication and printing of reading and revision materials to all learners in Mombasa that will be distributed to the schools for free to help learners during the holidays.

Speaking in Mombasa yesterday, Nassir directed the education department to establish an award for county top performers per school as a motivation to the candidates. The award he says will lead to scholarships for the best performers when joining secondary level.

Mombasa county Director of Education James Gichungi decried shortage of monitoring and evaluation officers, shortage of vehicles, unfenced schools and dilapidated classrooms.