There is no such thing as public nursery education in Kenya. As a result children from poor families begin their education in Primary School, at age 6, while kids from more well of families enter primary with 3 years of school and a head start in reading, writing, counting and speaking English. Madaraka Community Nursery School offers low cost or free early childhood education to children from families that can’t afford private nursery school. Our goal is to help children from poor families get an equal opportunity succeed in primary and continue on the secondary school and higher education.
Madaraka Community Nursery School was founded by a pair of brothers who first founded a home for orphaned and abandoned children.
In April and May of 2010 Hatua Likoni constructed a new school house for Madaraka Community Nursery School, consists of 6 large classrooms. School is taught by six teachers who dedicate themselves to providing high quality reading, writing, math, and English instruction using music and art as learning tools.
While all other nursery schools in Likoni are for profit and charge high fees, Madaraka charges only 300/- ($3.75) per month, or 13.6/- ($0.17) per day, just enough to pay the teachers wages and ensure that the school can sustain itself. This is about 1/3 of what other schools charge.
Madaraka provides its students with education 5 days per week from 8 am until 4 pm, morning porridge and lunch.For families that struggle to support their children, being able to pay less than a dollar a day for child care and food for a child is a great service, as feeding the child at home would cost at least as much or more. For children that would not eat if they were not in school, our feeding program is more than just a service, but their source of basic sustenance. For parents day care enables them to work, while the education Madaraka provides helps ensure that Likoni children from low incomes families have access to early childhood education and a head start in life.
Hatua Likoni, with support from SDL Foundation, helps ensures that Madaraka’s students are nourished by providing Madaraka with the food that is served to all students, every school day. In total Hatua Likoni provides students at Madaraka with 70,000 meals per year.
In June 2011 Hatua Likoni constructed 36 new desks for Madaraka, able to seat 108 students.