enjuba: from early childhood to responsible citizenship

Problem

According to UNICEF only 1 in 10 Ugandan children aged between 3 – 5 years are enrolled in formal pre-primary education. Most preschools are privately operated and located in urban areas. Community-based Early Childhood programs receive no government funding, lack a curriculum, and are under-equipped. They are also mostly managed by untrained volunteers, making it impossible for these children to gain foundational skills, especially in literacy and numeracy. As a result, 30% of the children who join grade 1 drop out of school in grade 1 without learning how to write their own name, and according to the World Bank's Learning Poverty Index, 83% of Ugandan children are unable to read and perform basic math functions by age 10.

Solution

There is, therefore, a need for scalable, high-quality pre-primary programs to provide rural children with a solid foundation. 74% of Uganda’s population lives in rural areas, and their children mostly attend public schools. enjuba's approach is not to set up as many (private) pre-primary centres as possible, but to fundamentally change the setup and quality of early childhood development (ECD) in Uganda. enjuba focuses on supporting rural public and community preschools in establishing and operating evidence-based early childhood learning centres. This includes providing a step-by-step curriculum and age-appropriate books, training teachers to use the curriculum and to create learning materials from locally available resources, and parental sensitization on the benefits of education. They aim to provide a foundation for lifelong learning, improve literacy rates and ultimately break the vicious cycle of poverty. All of enjuba’s interventions are based on strong research findings that are adjusted to match the Ugandan context. The organization works closely with the Ministry of Education with the goal of bringing high-quality early childhood education to as many parts of the country as possible.