Multi Stakeholder Interventions in Enhancing Early Childhood Care and Education in Lira District, Uganda

Abstract

The paper aspires to assess different strategies for enhancing ECCE programme in Lira District after realizing that the district has statistics which cast doubt on the future of ECCE but very limited effort has been made to improve the enrolment, retention and completion rate. The study aims to address specific objectives that included determining the significance of local community efforts, government interventions, and CSOs interventions in enhancing ECCE programme in Lira district. All the four nursery schools in Agweng sub-county, Lira district were sampled through census, and a sample size of 59 respondents was selected through probability sampling techniques. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS and the findings reveal that government interventions (r=0.625, p<0.01) is more significant in enhancing ECCE programme; and results of linear regression reveals that both government Interventions (p<0.01, β= 0.49); and local community efforts (p<0.01, β= 0.38) are significant in predicting ECCE programme enhancement in Lira district with an adjusted R2 of 0.437. The study concludes that both government interventions and local community efforts would be very significant in enhancing ECCE programme in Lira district. The study recommends that Government of Uganda should consider offering financial support to the existing ECCE centers; undertake the creation of budget line or wage bills for ECCE care-givers; and undertake the establishment of ECCE learning centers in all government-aided primary schools in order to enhance the programme, not only in Lira district but to the entire country.