Pre-school children enjoy a break of soya porridge in Tanzania

DAYS when the young mother would stay home to raise the child until he or she is at least at elementary level, are gone. This is the era of the ‘double income’, where the mother, alike the father of the child, is expected to go out and earn, in order to contribute to the upkeep of the family.

Even so, many girls and women are abandoned by the fathers of their children and so have to singly look after the children – form feeding them, through clothing and maintaining their health, to seeing them through school. The times have thus changed that it is not so surprising for mothers to take their children to day-care centres or pre-school as early as just two years.

Regulation of pre-school lacks in many education systems, Uganda being one of those. Educationists argue however, that a parent needs to know his or her child before deciding to enter him or her into pre-school. Alternatively, the parent may choose to place the child in a day-care facility, which is a programme offering a pre-school curriculum and full-day care, whereas the pre-school is purposely a half day encounter of the child and others, with their ‘teacher’, for activities of generally socialization.