JANUARY 29, 2015 – Kitatya, Kayunga, Eastern Uganda. The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, has opened a $100,000 (about Shs 2.8 billion) Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD) in Kitatya, Kayunga District with a call to residents to use the facility to improve children’s performance in national examinations.
The Aziz Dedhar ECD Resource Centre was constructed by iREAD Foundation, a registered Canadian charity organisation in collaboration with The Madada Foundation. The facility will this year admit 100 children. Three other ECD centres will be constructed in West Nile. Ms Kadaga urged residents to maintain the centre through contributing money for renovations instead of waiting for donations to maintain it. “Although this centre is named Aziz Dedhar ECD, it is your centre. Guard it jealously and bring your children here,” Ms Kadaga said on Tuesday.
Dr Noor Jaffer, the chief executive officer iREAD, said early education is a strong foundation.“Children who have attended ECD have a higher success rate in primary, secondary and through college,” Dr Jaffer said. Mr Shafique Ssekalala, the Madrasa Early Childhood Programme Uganda (MECPU) of the Aga Khan Foundation East Africa, said they will soon sign an agreement with iREAD to train teachers to ably handle the children. “MECPU is the leading ECD service provider in Uganda, and we have already developed concepts best for ECD. We are only waiting to cement the partnership,” Mr Ssekalala said.
Kayunga, like other rural districts always registers poor academic performance which is attributed to poverty of parents who cannot afford scholastic materials, among others. Of the 7071 candidates who sat for Primary Leaving Exams in 2014, only 338 candidates passed in grade one.
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IREAD School Opening – Kitatya, Kayunga, Eastern Uganda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRVIKZkFEl0
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