Fwd: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus on Early ChildhoodCare and Development. Reply by 12 March 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Geeta Menon <gmenon@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus on Early ChildhoodCare and Development. Reply by 12 March 2010
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>

Dear Friends,

Thanks for initiating this much needed debate on ECCD and the Rights of children in the age group  0 to 6.  Please find my comments to the very pertinent issues raised by Prof. Vineta Kaul, below:

Should it be a justifiable right for only 3-6 year olds and that also to center based Early Childhood Education? Or should it be a right to a stimulating, healthy and enabling environment for all children, from birth to 6 years no matter where they are located? If it is the latter, what kind of government's commitment and public provisions would define this right operationally?

Ideally it is the right of every child, from 0 to 6 years of age to have a stimulating, healthy and enabling environment. Even if a daunting task steps need to be taken in that direction through appropriate policies and programs. The government needs to adopt a two pronged approach, family based and centre based. It should develop policies that enable families, especially the marginalized families, provide nutrition and early stimulation to children. This can be done either through new policies and programs that ensure adequate food for mothers and children and education on early child care for caretakers. However more appropriate would be to expand the scope of current policies and programs, like ICDS, PDS, SSA or even NREGA. The first step however is to develop a comprehensive strategy for 0 to 6 year olds, this needs to be followed by identifying strategies ( or vehicles) for implementation this could be formulation of new schemes or expansion of current schemes . Integration of elements in existing schemes should be backed by appropriate plans and resources, the temptation of loading additional elements without appropriate monetary support should be avoided with vigilance.

If it should be only for 3 to 6 year olds and through a center based provision, what steps would be needed to ensure access to every child, given the wide variations in quality? If it is not conceptualized as institution/center based ECCD, but more holistically, what would be the monitoring mechanisms to ensure that every child's right to sound ECCE is fulfilled?

As said earlier it is possible to reach a comprehensive package to 0 to 6 year olds only through diverse ways and there is a need to explore them. It is however apparent that it will have a combination of home based and centre based approach. The ICDS Anganwadi would still be a good option of reaching pre-school education and nutrition to the 3 to 6 year olds. The need is to establish and ensure quality standards for the pre-school component and nutrition. The  current monitoring systems within ICDS could be reviewed and strengthened. There is also a need to develop different kind of AW models for the urban poor.

It will be a challenge to monitor holistic ECCE interventions, especially if these are implemented through different challenges. One way, if resources allow would be to develop a cadre of ' Social Worker' ( could be called anything else) but the key work of the Social worker would be enable communities  plan and implement  strategies for rights of 0 to 6 year olds. The social worker becomes the nodal person to support and monitor inclusion of child rights activities in different programs and schemes.      

Should there be a separate act for the right to education and development of 0-6 age group? Or should it be part of the Right to Education Act, given that the nodal Ministries for the two are different (for elementary education it is the Ministry of Human Resource Development and for ECCE it is the Ministry of Women and Child Development

 I feel that there should be a separate act for the right to education

Geeta Menon

CARE

New Delhi

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From: Venita Kaul [mailto:vkaul54@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 5:07 PM
To: 'Education Community'
Subject: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus on Early ChildhoodCare and Development. Reply by 12 March 2010

Moderator's Note: Dear Members, after a long time, we are happy to initiate a discussion on Early Childhood Care and Education for members' advice. As all of us would agree, this issue is of significance, given the importance of 0-6 years, in a persons' life. The kind of developmental and early learning opportunities as well as nutrition and health inputs a child is able to receive at this age, has a lot of bearing on her future.  

We are happy to announce that Venita Kaul, a known specialist in the area of Early Childhood Care and Development has agreed to be the Guest Moderator for this discussion. Venita Kaul recently retired as Senior Education Specialist from World Bank, India office and has written extensively on the educational and developmental needs of this age group. Even after her retirement from the World Bank, her focus is maintained on ECCD. We are sure members would be forthcoming in sharing their advice and suggestions for better strategization of ECCD in the country.

We look forward to your active participation.  

Shubhangi

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Dear Members, 

I work for Center for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED), which is located in Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD). CECED's mission is to contribute to the national goals of social justice and equity by advocating for and promoting every child's right to a sound foundation for life, through contextually appropriate and inclusive ECED and to place ECED in the forefront of policy formulation and effective programme implementation.

After a long battle, education has become the fundamental right for children in the age group of 6-14 years. However, the Right to Education Act has left out the very important age group of children below 6 years. The reason given is the fact that 86^th Constitutional Amendment and its Article 21A through which right to education was accepted as a fundamental right, talks about children between the age group of 6-14 only.

Therefore, the Act clearly excludes and thus violates the right of the 0-6 and 14 to 18 year old children. As a Bill flowing out of the Amendment, it is clear that the Bill can not go beyond Article 21A, which makes it imperative that the 86^th amendment must be re-amended to correct this anomaly, and when that happens, the change needs to be reflected in the corresponding Act at that point of time. 

However, this omission has resulted in the exclusion of 17 crore children of 0-6 years age group from their entitlement to education as their fundamental right, which is a major cause of concern, given that this age is now empirically established as the most important and formative stage of a person's life. Given this concern, the issue of inclusion of children below 6 years in the Right to Education bill is being raised in several forums.   

In the context of the above, we invite members to share their views on how they believe this important age group and its entitlements should be catered to.

We wish to hear your advice on the following:

• Should it be a justifiable right for only 3-6 year olds and that also to center based Early Childhood Education? Or should it be a right to a stimulating, healthy and enabling environment for all children, from birth to 6 years no matter where they are located? If it is the latter, what kind of government's commitment and public provisions would define this right operationally?
• If it should be only for 3 to 6 year olds and through a center based provision, what steps would be needed to ensure access to every child, given the wide variations in quality? If it is not conceptualized as institution/center based ECCD, but more holistically, what would be the monitoring mechanisms to ensure that every child's right to sound ECCE is fulfilled?
• Should there be a separate act for the right to education and development of 0-6 age group? Or should it be part of the Right to Education Act, given that the nodal Ministries for the two are different (for elementary education it is the Ministry of Human Resource Development and for ECCE it is the Ministry of Women and Child Development

Your inputs and advice will strengthen the advocacy and efforts of diverse sets of people in the area of ECCD and would also give us a clear direction to design our own activities and efforts as a Centre dedicated to early childhood care and development

Regards,

Venita Kaul

Center for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED)

Ambedkar University,

Delhi

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