Fwd: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus onEarlyChildhoodCare and Development. Reply by 17 March 2010

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From: Multiple Contributors <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
Date: Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 1:43 PM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus onEarlyChildhoodCare and Development. Reply by 17 March 2010
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>

Moderator's Note: Dear Members, as we are in process of posting another query for your inputs, and also working on finalizing the CR on the discussion about "Strategies to Increase Focus on Early Childhood Care and Development". We have received two more responses which we are sharing with you. These are from Ganesh Udapdyay and Umesh Chandra Pandey.  

Thanks again for all your inputs!

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Ganesh Upadhyay, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi

Right to survival , development, protection and participation have been already put into operational terms in the plan of Action for young children by the Ministry of Women and Child Development .Right to survival and optimal development during ECCE period especially for  the Under three is closely linked with mother's well being and her entitlement. All children are entitled for best care and education during early childhood. However realization of these rights may demand differential treatment in a diverse country like ours. Home based strategies need to be planned and implemented. The provisioning made under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for child care has not been utilized by and large in the states. Similarly under Mahila Samakhya the component of child care and education need to be better planned for its quality and coverage. The ECCE under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has remained half heard as many states even after having provisioning of some degree have not been abled to utilize the resources available for the purpose of ECCE.

National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) has also the potential to enhance the coverage to include all communities /families living under disadvantage conditions to gain from. All these and other programmes require some level of threshold facilities to take off the programmes for the realization of child development goals. Right to health cannot be realized unless we have functional and well equipped Primary Health Centers (PHC) in all blocks. Similarly right to play cannot be realized unless provisions for play are made as a right. To combat the menace of malnutrition the management of SNP and midday meal need to be further strengthened. For right to survival mothers entitlement needs to be linked with child's right. This all indicates and concludes towards  

• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) have to be strengthened and modernized as per the aspirations of parents and demand for social justice and equity. We cannot continue to have poor programme for poor children and English medium for rich ones. Modernization may take equalization for facilities and resources at par with the best of the ECCE programmes. This is particularly important for under three child.

• For pre school child, the implementation of education policy provisions need to be implemented in terms of day care facilities and pre primary education in the education sector along with child development programme of ICDS.
• The Planning Commission's recommendation for one year preprimary in all the institutions of elementary education holds good and need to be pursued vigorously. The same has been the view of Knowledge commission.
• Leaving education component to WCD is not going to yield desired results as infrastructure facilities for training and professional development rest largely with education sector and coordination between the two departments has remained wanting all through these years. It is better to push for Pre schooling as a part of SSA throughout the country right from the habitation level planning to implementation and monitoring.

Umesh Chandra Pandey, School of Good Governance and Policy Analysis, Bhopal

I congratulate Ms Venita Kaul for highlighting this important issue of Early Childhood Education. The issues involved in Early Childhood need to be taken care of, urgently and very seriously by the Government if we want to ensure the right to education for 6+ age group. One of the major reasons for poor performance of school education is "weak infrastructure","un trained professionals" and "lack of proper perspectives" among the planners about early child hood education.

The needs of the Early Childhood have to be addressed with a different perspective. It is an entirely different professional area with its own set of intricacies and problems. One of the problems with existing systems is that people tend to relate the 0-6 age group as the down ward extension of the formal schooling after 6+ .This has narrowed down entire outlook. With this type of perspective we have in fact done more damage to children than we have helped them. We need to first recognize the problems and then try to put in place required systems, trained personnel and infrastructure.

There is certainly a need to evolve the enactment of laws to ensure early childhood care but it will not be fair to merge the educational requirements of early child hood with the right to education for 6+ age group.

I feel that the rights of this age group can be addressed through a different act which can possibly be better taken care of by Ministry of Women and Child Development.

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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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