Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3  

I have not received a reply from my international contact, so I decided to go to the Early Childhood Care and Education webpage and share three new ideas I gained about issues related to international early childhood education that relates to my professional goals.

1.  Many programs for high quality childcare offer children from underprivileged backgrounds, promotes inspiration, self-assurance, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness.  It was stated that we need to always include useful factors to consider such as parental education and family involvement, focusing on quantitatively, culturally and developmentally adequate.  This workforce is made up of a various group of pre-school teachers, care workers, and other professionals in the early childhood field.  What plays an important role in a child’s education is being able to have active parents and community involvement.  There should be ample training and work conditions so they can assimilate the content and practice of early childhood education.  All schools have been known for regular inspection and follow-up of the service setting, along with adequate health and nutrition components.  Some government resources cause efforts to lower the entry age for child to attend school.  Many pre-school children do have the funds for their education and therefore ways should be consider in improving the school settings. 

2.  Development goals and vision in education is a country’s education policy and its starting point is to realize the contribution to the achievement of the goals.  In order to create a high-quality curriculum for young children there must be goals, establish priorities, planning ahead and finally evaluating the process. The education sector is facilitated by two Analytical Tools required in the participation of all key stakeholders (Finance, Development, and Planning).

The Tools help to analyze the following broad issues:

Analytical Tool on Relevance: Country level relevance; Labour market and world of work responsiveness; Global level relevance; Individual level responsiveness; Internal system coherence

Analytical Tool on Equity and Inclusion: Understanding inequity and exclusion; Policies and strategies to address inequity and exclusion

3.  Access and Equity

Learning begins at birth stated by the 1990 Jomtien Declaration of Education for All.  Many participating countries committed themselves “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.”  Expanding equitable access to early childhood services underscoring the importance of instituting policy for the poor.   Many countries promote services for children living in poverty that have limited access to early childhood services, but concerns arise about the quality.  A pro-poor policy can rearrange funds by reducing state support, even though central governments make sure an equitable distribution of funds among the disadvantaged regions.  It aims to increase access without creating serious regional inequities.

Central governments must ensure an equitable distribution of resources for early childhood education among different populations and especially those who live in the most disadvantaged regions. This approach aims to expand access without creating serious regional inequities. However, there is universal provision for a certain age group, while the overall enrollment in other age groups is low, this strategy can create inequity.  Furthermore, many unfortunate children of non-target ages receive government attention and targeting can decline where government plan for universal access.

                 Reference:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood