Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3
In the UNESCO Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) website there are four major areas dedicated to the ECCE. Access, Quality, Investment, and Governance are the four areas. “UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children's holistic development. ECCE is part of a range of programs that promote inclusive education”.
In the UNESCO Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) website there are four major areas dedicated to the ECCE. Access, Quality, Investment, and Governance are the four areas. “UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children's holistic development. ECCE is part of a range of programs that promote inclusive education”.
· Access:
Explains the importance of having access to ECCE to all the young children in any part of the world.
- Quality:
Explains the why is it important to have high quality early childhood education and care for all the children regardless of their financial backgrounds.
“Early childhood care and education programs should emphasize the child’s holistic development and extend beyond assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling. High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness”. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/quality/
· Investment:
Early childhood education and care should be a part of the basic education provided by the government for all the children.
“The 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA), stated that countries should view early childhood as part of basic education. Once countries recognize the positive value of state investment in this area, the next challenge is to mobilize funds. In general, government funding for early childhood is extremely small. For this reason approaching the private sector (non-profit and for-profit) can be an effective strategy”. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/investment/
· Governance:
Even though there are several entities involved in the governess of the early childhood education and care they all need to come to a common ground at the decision making process.
Early childhood care and education is often the concern of several government sectors and usually these are education, social affairs and health. The multi-faceted nature of early childhood care and education gives rise to the challenge of effectively coordinating provision of policy development and implementation across the different sectors. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/governance/
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The right to education
This is one of my strong beliefs. Even with the involvement of UNESCO and United Nations there are still millions of children who are living in streets, factories, agricultural fields, refugee camps and many other places without receiving a bit of an opportunity to have an education.
“Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights. It promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits. Yet millions of children and adults remain deprived of educational opportunities, many as a result of poverty”. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/right-to-education/
- Inclusion and diversity
Special education and education for all without any boundaries due to social order, gender or beliefs is not common especially in the developing world. I am excited to see the involvement of UNESCO on this matter.
“For UNESCO inclusion and diversity in education are a human rights issue. The Organization promotes inclusive quality education by reviewing and monitoring education policies, training education officials to promote inclusive education policies and disseminating good practices. UNESCO’s 9,000 Associated Schools promote diversity through exchanges, twinning partnerships and common intercultural projects between schools and countries.”
I came upon the link titled: Ten Questions on inclusion. Please read these ten questions and answers. This article made me think deeply about the discussions that taking place in the political arena today. For more and more people it seems like such a simple thing to cut money from the educational programs that matters to the children in poverty. I wonder if the stakeholders have a greater understanding on the issues and rights of the children because they are not the voters or the fundraisers for the policy makers. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/inclusive-education/10-questions-on-inclusive-quality-education/
I found more videos on the UNESCO website. Most of these are twenty-five minute videos on different topics from all over the globe. Please check these out because most of them have information that are important to the educators. The First Step TV series is one of the themes that carry videos on the children of Brazil , Uganda
http://www.rockhopper.tv/programmes/143/
My goal is to find ways to make early childhood care and education better for the children of the world. It is always inspirational and motivational to see the positive direction that ECCE is moving in globally. But at the same time there is much to accomplish. There are things that can wait a little longer, when other situations take the top of the priority list. Here is one situation that should be on the top of the priority list at this moment. Please take a moment to watch this clip and do what you can do to the humanity. (I received this via e-mail)
“ONE co-founder Bono and Somali-born singer and poet K'naan talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the famine in the Horn of Africa — and what's being done about it. Click here to automatically sign ONE's petition calling on world leaders to end this crisis, and then check out the clip for your self”
References:
UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/),
ONE website
Venuri,
ReplyDeleteI was eager to find out what UNESCO had to share as it pertains to quality in ECCE and I realized that the issues are quite similar. UNESCO like many other organizations concerned with children’s development lack criteria for defining quality care. In addition, where government resources are limited, children in the last year of pre-primary are placed in the primary school or efforts are made to lower the entry age. Repeatedly, we are seeing efforts to sacrifice high-quality care and education because of standards and accountability but we must bear in mind that our children’s development must progress along developmentally appropriate practices in order for them to achieve their highest potential.
Venuri,
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is a lot to be addressed when trying to better early childhood education globally. I like your perspective that you need to take it one step at a time, or one issue at a time beginning with the biggest concern. Of course this will be different from one area to another as not every community has the same issues and needs. Thank you also for all the other neatly organized information you provided.
Venuri,
ReplyDeleteI support the idea of diversity and inclusion. We could onlyt have a diverse and inclusive environment when we learn to respect similiarities and differences such that children, families and employess feel valued and can contribute whole heartedly to the mission of the organization. It is in this kind of organization we become motivated to be the quality professionals we should be thus contributing the full extent of our knowledge, skills, and experiences to the benefit of children and families and the organization.
Thanks for posting!