Leveraging on Interactive Learning Pedagogy in Promoting School Readiness and Women Economic Engagement: Perspectives from the RCT Intervention Project in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Women economic empowerment and school readiness of children cannot be distinctly separated. It is on this basis that Kenyatta University WEE in collaboration with other partners jointly are conducting an experiment on WEE and children’s holistic development including school readiness. The intervention experiment is conducted in Tharaka Nithi county to understand how early enrollment of 3-year-old children would promote children’s school readiness and enable their mothers to engage in income generating activities. This intervention is happening in 60 schools(treatment schools). A control group of 3-year old children from the catchment are also selected for comparison at the end of the intervention. Besides, the same number (5) of 4-year old pre-primary school one (PP1) were identified for the same reason. 4-year old children attend PP1 as per the government policy. The two categories will learn together using an enhanced curriculum, provided learning resources and use of interactive pedagogy. The children were enlisted during a baseline survey to identify families with eligible children for the experiment. Assessment of the children in terms of developmental milestones was done by the assessment team of psychologists using among others Debron-2 school-readiness kit. This paper presents some of the baseline results regarding the status of 4 and 3-year-old children’s school readiness skills. The findings allude to the differences in school readiness of the 3-year old children and the extent to which the can cope with schooling.