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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kalyan Dangar <kdharit16@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 12:04 PM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Strategies to Increase Focus on Early Childhood Care and Development. Reply by 12 March 2010
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>

Dear Friends,

A large number of children from marginalized communities do not have access to these services. The low outreach is reflected in the poor indicators at the primary school level. The dropout rate for children classes I to IV for 1998 -1999 for Gujarat state is reported to be 25.75% (22.52% for boys and 33.98% for girls). An analysis of the data on children dropping out of school at different levels of schooling i.e., primary, middle and secondary indicates that children from poorer sections of society drop out in the early stages of education, while those from better-off sections drop out at later stages. Of these children, almost one-third dropped out on account of economic considerations, such as compulsions to work for wages or looking after siblings.  Early child development interventions can help reduce societal inequalities rooted in poverty by helping to provide young children from disadvantaged backgrounds with a more equitable start in life and a foundation for further growth, this is especially important for those living in rural and urban marginal areas.

Class and caste variations to a large extent determine the quality of childcare the young child receives in the family.  The quality of childcare in disadvantaged families is severely affected due to economic poverty, illiteracy, and lack of awareness and skills on early childcare.  The deprivation is observed directly in the developmental status of the child, inclusive of health, social development and the child's ability to adjust and achieve in pre-school and formal schools. An analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) scenario indicates that the key problems of reaching quality inputs to the children are:

Ø       Limited understanding of issues related to early childhood and its requirements by key players at home, at the pre-school, in the formal schools and in the community

Ø       Lack of inter linkages amongst service providers and community for an integrated agenda.

Ø       Lack of informed demand from families/community for appropriate programs

Ø       Although primary schools exist in every village the average number of classrooms is inadequate (2.6 per village) and the teacher-student ration is high at 1:40

Ø       Concept of Quality Education for the children in Early Childhood Development (ECD) is very important. Formal education is provided to them but how to improve the system of education and to make it more qualitative in terms of over all growth of the child is important aspect.

Ø       To consider the issues of Health and Nutrition is also important for the child's development in this stage. It should be integrated in ECD.

Ø       For primary education there are mechanisms through which it is monitored and evaluated like different committees such as Village Education Committee (VEC). While in ECD there is no such mechanism to monitor and evaluate its work. Hence there should be some kind of village level, block level, district level and stat level mechanisms for the same.

 kalyan Dangar

cohesion foundation

Rapar-kutch ( Gujarat)

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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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