Paid Childcare Provision and Influence on Quality of Early Childhood Education in urban centres in Kenya

• In Event: Parental engagement

Proposal

Paid Childcare in Kenya is delivered in two main ways; 1. At home – Home Based Child Care (HBCC) is where women turn their homes into childcare facilities offering both day and night care services or at homes by nannies who often double up as domestic workers doing other chores alongside caring for children and 2. In centres – Centre Based Childcare (CBCCs), separate spaces are rented or built by the owner to deliver childcare services. Centre-based childcare services may also be delivered in religious areas (churches, mosques etc.), market facilities, pre-schools and offices and are generally referred to as day cares, playgroups, nurseries, or crèches. Paid Child-care workers take care of employers' children and oversee their daily activities, or engage in helping teachers to look after schoolchildren, with tasks including: assisting children to bath, dress and feed themselves; taking children to and from school or outdoors for recreation; playing games with children, or entertaining children by reading or storytelling; maintaining order in children's bedrooms and playrooms; taking care of schoolchildren at lunch or other school breaks etc. However, child caregivers who ae mainly females have very minimal skills in child care. Not withstanding the fact that skilled caregiving is positively linked to quality lifetime outcomes for children.

According to ILO, Care work, including Childcare, is essential for the reproduction of the future workforce, for the health and education of the current workforce and for the building of a nation’s GDP (ILO, 2018a). Positive caregiving in terms of education and socialization promotes children’s cognitive and social competencies and improves success in managing their lives. However, compromised caregiving jeopardizes optimal child development, especially among parents who lack the resources, knowledge, investment, or competencies to rear their young so as to augment individual and common good (Bugental & Grusec, 2006).
A study conducted in 2023 on the status of female child care workers in Kenya by Uthabiti Africa, which also analyzed childcare provision and child policy environment indicates that the Kenya legislations are highly child centred, leaving out the concerns of the childcare workforce such as skilling and certification, resourcing and financial inclusion. In addition, the policies are not cognizant of the status of childcare in its formal nature and as well failing to recognize and regulate them (Uthabiti Africa, 2023). Women in Childcare work is data-driven and revolves around childcare, enabling nearly all facets of the economy to function, yet they remain marginalized. For example

Responsive caregiving, or interactions in which caregivers give appropriate responses to a child’s signals, is linked to improved psychosocial, cognitive and physical outcomes in children. Poor development and learning in the early years affect over 66% of children in sub-Saharan Africa (APHRC, 2022). This is due to lack of responsive care practices, stunting and poverty which has an impact on young children’s emotional, social, physical and cognitive development. However, much remains unknown about how responsive caregiving affects child development across cultural and socioeconomic contexts. The purpose of this paper is to examine predictors of paid caregiver’s responsive caregiving and investigate how these interactions are associated with children’s development and improved future outcomes. Hence this paper explores the missing link which is the relevant and required competencies of a paid caregiver to improve their capacity in contributing to better childcare giving and learning outcomes and wellbeing for early years. Specifically, the paper was set to identify the current capacity of child caregivers and establish their training needs and/or competencies required for healthy child caregiving work experiences and finally to explore the role of child caregivers on quality early childhood education.

The study is based on the attachment theory which states that early child-adult attachment significantly affects a child’s socio-emotional and cognitive development, and hence establishing attachment-based child care can contribute to a healthy and happy childhood. Based on research findings, major components of this type of child care are: training for caregivers on attachment theory and sensitivity; employment of an appropriate policy, such as the appointment of a key person; a small child-adult ratio; and collaboration with parents that includes education about secure attachment and sensitivity.

Desk review of empirical evidence was conducted on both qualitative and quantitative results. To identify studies related to childcare caregivers’ interventions in child care, attachment-based, early childhood setting, Google Scholar databases were searched. By using a combination of key words child caregivers, Child Relationships, Child Development, child care attachment, many results were yielded relevant to the study, sorted and analysed. Thematic analysis was done using NVIVO and quantitative data with statistical evidences integrated.

The findings show that incorporating responsive caregiving behaviors may foster the course and outcome of child development and may be of service for future interventions that optimize child development. What caregivers need are theories based on their work situation, that give answers to questions such as: how do you help children to feel safe in a group when a non-parent is looking after them? What do children learn from one another and when do they need an adult there? How do you prevent formation of a sterile, boring, child world? How can you analyse the effect of power between the adults and children and between the children themselves?
Caregiving has benefits as well as costs for offspring. Positive caregiving in terms of education and socialization promotes children’s cognitive and social competencies and improves success in managing their lives. However, compromised caregiving jeopardizes optimal child development, especially among parents who lack the resources, knowledge, investment, or competencies to rear their young ones so as to augment individual and common good (Bugental & Grusec, 2006).

Keywords: child attachment; child caregiving; child-caregiver, early childhood education, early childhood development

Author

• Mary Akinyi Otieno, Kenyatta University