---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Multiple Contributors <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
Date: Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus on EarlyChildhoodCare and Development. Reply by 17 March 2010
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
From: Multiple Contributors <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
Date: Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus on EarlyChildhoodCare and Development. Reply by 17 March 2010
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
Moderator's Note: Dear Members, here are the responses from Vinay Kumar Srivastava , Vrinda Datta and Shubhi Sachdeva on the issue. Vrinda and shubhi are not yet the members of the Education Community. We thank three of them for their contribution and look forward to many more insightful views in the coming days.
Since a lot of people who are not the members of the community have also geared up and responding to the issue we are extending the last date to reply to this query by next Wednesday which is 17 March 2010.
I am worried about the future of Indian Kids (3-6years) as in most of play, Kindergarten, Montessori schools the situation is not good.
- Schools are trying to make kid/toddlers a super human being at the age of 3-6, instilling as much as information they gathered from the internet about this age group.
- Skill needed to handle the children of this group is lacking in teachers.
- Teacher training curriculum is obsolete for ECCE. The way teacher engage with these young children is just not appropriate. There are hardly suitable activities with which children could engage and feel active. The problem is with the education of children themselves.
- Learning environment does not match with learners.
- Citizens/parents involvement is nil in the schools (except Parent Teacher Meetings, patens don't get involved in the activities of centers)
- Measurement of learning process needs improvement.
- Parents' orientation is needed (till now they are simply financial providers and don't engage beyond that.)
What it requires, is a complete overhaul of the system. The training of teachers' should be of the nature which enables them to elicit participation of young children. There should be interaction between parents' and teachers' on regular intervals. Parents should also engage with children once they come back from the school and make sure that their learning is strengthened in multiple ways. A Robust monitoring system in Schools is also a must.
I feel the improvement in all the above would be required to change the scenario of Early Child hood Care and Education.
- There is a need to focus on children of 5-6 years with a school readiness program which should come under the Right to Education.
- Children up to five years can come under Ministry of women and child development where right to development (optimal) is addressed. The right to development has to be realized by providing supportive systems to parents who are primarily responsible for young children. The government provides support systems through parent education, services like group care, and enabling family environment by providing food security, livelihoods etc.
- The role of government can be:
· To define, the roles of government, Ngo and private sector.
· To create quality standards for all programs across all sectors
· To create a monitoring body/accreditation system involving professionals, advocacy groups and professional associations and networks
· To create a curriculum framework for the 5-6 years olds.
Shubhi Sachdeva, Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development, Ambedkar University, New Delhi
When we talk about a healthy, sound environment for children, we cannot make it age specific. It's not as if one age group requires a stimulating environment while the others can make do with minimum stimulation. We need to look at all domains of development and all age groups. Also, research has shown that early brain development is crucial in determining later development too. So we cannot ignore the age group of 0-3 years.
Talking about taking steps to ensure this, I believe a dialog at a large scale would be required, between various stakeholders and beneficiaries from all the sectors in order to ensure rights to all children. As it is the multiplicity of ministries and departments within the ministries creates a lot of problems and serves as an excuse for not acting. Therefore, rethinking needs to be done regarding assigning departments and all things pertaining to children need to be looked at in a holistic manner and ministries should act as partners in it in literal terms.
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
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 86th 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 86th 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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Ch.Santakar
Pujariput
Koraput-764020
Orissa
Mob:09437192553
e-mail:santakar@gmail.com
web:www.koraputonline.com
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