Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
The program is intended to provide access to children from poor households to early childhood care and education in Addis Ketema and Kirkos sub cities in Addis Ababa and Chencha town and Deremalloworeda in SNNPR. Through building and furnishing new ECCE centers, class rooms and other infrastructures within the premises of Government primary schools, the program has been able to address the problems that many households encounter due to the limited number of ECCEs available in the areas and the inability of many households to cover the high rate of fees that are charged by the privately owned schools. As the ECCE program is implemented in within premises of schools, it has multiple advantages in that ECCEs serve as feeder to Primary Schools, ownership and sustainability is not a question, free land for construction will be accessed by government etc. Over the past decade, MCDP has built 11 schools and handed over to communities and government.
The followings are some of the major achievement of ECCE:
- 14 ECCE centers constructed and renovated
- Children in project communities have accessed quality ECCE and primary school
- Children have been able to develop good reading habits
- School infrastructure and management improved
- Teachers acquired relevant skills and capacities
- Girls and boys are actively participating in extracurricular activities
- Strong family and community involvement in the operation and management of the ECCE centers
The program has also other components that are designed to improve household food security and address some pressing problems that are affecting the day-to-day lives of communities where these children are growing.
