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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Smitha Kalyani <smithakalyani@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 12:39 PM
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>

Dear Friends,

 

Following are some of the comments that we would like to share with you.

 

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?

 

Response: A stimulating, health and enabling environment for all children in 0-6 years of age should undoubtedly be the right of every child. Ensuring this right in a country like ours with diverse socio-economic levels, educational backgrounds of parents, geographical diversity would mean working at several levels and adopting a multi-pronged approach with emphasis on local solutions versus one national "solution". This holistic approach, while desirable, will not add value if it is not implemented well and monitored, but remains just in spirit.

 

To ensure this, the Government must first guarantee a minimum commitment to delivering good quality ECE for all 3-6 year children. School readiness skills for all children entering primary school should be ensured and tracked.

 

While this can be delivered through a center-based approach, it cannot function separate from the home environment of the child. There must be mechanisms in place to link the ECD center with the parents and local communities to ensure that a stimulating environment is provided to all children from birth to 6 years. Such linkages should be ensured by monitoring of community/parents meetings with the ECD teacher/care-giver, parents' involvement in ECD centre activities, measurement of health and nutrition status of all 0-6 year children etc.

 

Several studies acknowledge that ECE has long term impacts on enrolment, retention and successful attainment in primary school. Children without adequate pre-school inputs start school with a disadvantage that could cause them to fall further behind as they move through primary school. Ensuring this first foundational step places them in a better and rightful position to acquire their full potential.

 

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?

 

Response: In a centre based approach for ECE for 3-6 year olds, health (supplementary nutrition, immunization, heath checkups) of all children in 0-6 age group must be ensured as heath and well-being have a lot of implications for education, especially for smaller children.

The following are required to ensure good quality ECE for all children:

• Mini-Anganwadis are being established to ensure access. These must be converted to full fledged centers.
• Currently Anganwadi workers cater to a large number of children – 40-50 children per centre in some places. Establishing more centers in such places will ensure access to all children,
• Recruiting additional Anganwadi worker, as per Planning commission recommendation and NCERT, in each centre to focus exclusively on ECE will ease the workload of current Anganwadi workers and help in better quality of all services.
• Access without adequate quality of delivery will again serve to ensure the rights of the child only in spirit.
• Setting clear expected outcomes and focuses both in health and education and helping Anganwadi workers example Ensuring school readiness of all 5 year old children etc. This needs to be measured and corrective actions taken on an on-going basis.
• Regular and more training and skill up gradation of Anganwadi workers on child development and ECE outcomes is very essential.
• Adequate allocation and spend on learning materials for Anganwadi centers is a must to ensure good quality ECE.

 

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

Response: From a child's educational point of view, early childhood education and school education are key and integral aspects to development and cannot be de-linked. The Right to Education act must include all children less than 6 years of age as well.

 

 

Best Regards,

Smitha Kalyani

Association for India's Development

Chennai

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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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