A fantastic first year for Wandago ECD

A fantastic first year for Wandago ECD Centre

4/2/2020

Children playing outside Wandago ECD Centre

It’s been one year since Wandago Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD Centre) opened. Since then huge progress has been made and the 75 children who attend the ECD Centre are benefitting significantly from their education and achieving increasingly impressive results.

When the ECD Centre first opened it was challenging for the teachers, because the pupils needed to learn so many basics of behaviour and self-care. But through persistence and hard work with the children, their families and the community, there have been marked improvements in children’s wellbeing, health, hygiene, academic attainment and behaviour.

Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Over the past 12 months pupils’ personal hygiene has improved dramatically, through workshops in the community, parents’ meetings, interventions from the Child Protection Team and encouragement of children to be responsible.

A picture of a teacher and pupil from Baby Class

One of the pupils in baby class practicing writing skills, with support from the teacher.

The children are now clean and have learnt how to use the new latrine and toilet paper, and how to wash their hands afterwards.

Regular health screenings, deworming, immunisations and the provision of nutritious meals has had a positive impact on the physical health of the children, while the “love and care” given to them and “the right to play at school” (Winnie Biira, CEO of COTE Africa) has improved their overall well-being.

Violence among children and swearing have been tackled successfully but it took two full terms of working with the children, parents and the wider community for this to happen. Two children, who have now graduated to state primary school, remained violent despite interventions with their parents, so will continue to receive follow-up care from our programme staff.

Attainment
The children have achieved impressive results this year. Writing skills are on the up, 95% of Top Class are meeting national standards, 100% of children in Middle Class are writing well without supervision and 78% of Baby Class are achieving age standards. The children are also learning mathematics and are learning subtraction, addition and division.

Attendance
When the centre first opened pupil attendance was patchy, but over the months it has improved due to community awareness on the importance of education. Our social worker Babra found that two children in Wandago had dropped out of school and were staying at home. She spoke to the parents about the importance of ECD and asked them to take the children to the centre. They have now resumed attending every day.

At the end of the academic year, 22 children graduated from Top class to go onto state primary school. To celebrate there was a presentation and meal at the ECD Centre, where the children were given certificates and there were speeches and performances from the Wandago Child’s Rights Club.

Picture of Mukisa at school with his friends

Mukisa with his friends during a lesson.

Mukisa returns to the ECD Centre

4 year old Mukisa is a pupil at Wandago ECD Centre. When he first joined the ECD Centre in February, he did not know how to hold a pencil or how to read. Like other parents who have children at the Centre, Mukisa’s parents were advised to ensure that he attended school on a daily basis and to follow up on his progress.

Mukisa came to school every day and participated in all activities in the first two terms, so by June he had could write legible words, read short words and write his name. Mukisa’s achievements were putting smiles on the faces of his teachers.

However, he was transferred to another local school when his parents relocated to another community. Sadly, within one term, Mukisa could no longer read or write a single word - not even his name. His mother asked the teachers at Wandago ECD to re-admit him to the Centre. As she couldn’t afford transport to Wandago, Mukisa’s grandparents stepped in and made sure he could attend. Mukisa has settled back in well and can now read and write ably. His mother is very happy with how he is progressing and he has also discovered a love for creative activities like dance and drama.