ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Kenyan early childhood education (ECE) curriculum. It offers a critique that invites questions related to the extent to which young children’s caregiving arrangements in Africa reflect the cultural realities and contexts of African ways of understanding the world. The chapter argues that the philosophy and theoretical framework of the Kenyan ECE curriculum are largely based on the ideals of Western knowledge of child development. The enrollment figures represent satisfactory progress for ECE in Kenya. The early childhood development curriculum across Kenyan communities is universal and is developed by the Nairobi-based Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, formerly known as the Kenya Institute of Education. In residential estates, private nurseries are established in overcrowded locations often directly abutting private dwellings. Assessment in African ECE remains a challenge because the Western mode of assessment may not be appropriate and/or responsive to cultural and linguistic diversity within the local context.
