---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Padmini <rpadminirp@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 3:18 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>
Hence, a major effort is needed to inculcate in parents and other family caregivers, a full understanding and internalization of good parenting practices that will help the infant and young child under three develop in a holistic manner. Given that the key to bringing out the full potential of a child is to focus on this age group, it is self-defeating to ignore this aspect of child development. The opportunity cost of not attending to it is much higher than the cost of providing for it. I would like to cite the action research study done some years back in a Bangalore slum that clearly showed the Development Quotient of the children [under three] who were in the project clearly improve with the holistic care that was provided at home and by community workers under the overall supervision of health and development personnel [Mundkur et al, 5Cs: The Holistic Development of the Young Child, Child Rights Trust, 2006]
IEC in innovative ways to convince parents to follow good parenting practices is one key approach. In the case of the young child, 'Parenting' will cover all these aspects and be a step-by-step guide for adhering to good practices. There are both government and NGO experiences and guidelines, training materials on these approaches that can be used on a wider, sustained scale.
Another need is to ensure that the family has food, housing and health security. Without these basics, at least to a partial extent, it is futile to expect the family to pay attention to less tangible aspects of child development.
Government should solicit the collaboration of NGOs for these and for IEC.
Several good practices exist in the country and these must be built upon, using the Strategies for Children under six as a guide.
Crèche workers and Anganwadi Workers must also be fully trained in catering to the under three child. The number of workers and functioning centers must be proportional to the number of children in the age group 0-6.
Private institutions have mushroomed in urban areas and even in some larger rural centers and are sometimes not run on lines that are beneficial to the child. There should be standard protocols, minimum standards, and regulations [licensing, supervision/monitoring] preferably by joint Government / NGO representatives of all institutions, private and govt.
All these issues may become buried even if the RTE act is amended to cover children below six, and the emphasis may be only on 'education' rather than the holistic development, i.e., the care, stimulation, health, hygiene and nutrition of the young child. Hence a separate act, that includes revision of ICDS and Crèche policies and strategies, is needed for this age group.
This Act should be for ECCD and not just ECCE as the latter term zeroes in the education emphasis rather than the development one, and the difference is crucially important.
Regards,
From: Padmini <rpadminirp@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 3:18 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 All,
I feel that a centre-based approach alone will not do, as most children under three cannot be reached on a day-to-day basis that way. Their health and growth check-ups can be managed if done systematically and diligently by trained Anganwadi/Balwadi workers and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM)/ Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHAs), but the daily care, stimulation, nutritional and hygiene needs is in the hands of the mother and other family care-givers [unless part of the time, the child is in a crèche].
Hence, a major effort is needed to inculcate in parents and other family caregivers, a full understanding and internalization of good parenting practices that will help the infant and young child under three develop in a holistic manner. Given that the key to bringing out the full potential of a child is to focus on this age group, it is self-defeating to ignore this aspect of child development. The opportunity cost of not attending to it is much higher than the cost of providing for it. I would like to cite the action research study done some years back in a Bangalore slum that clearly showed the Development Quotient of the children [under three] who were in the project clearly improve with the holistic care that was provided at home and by community workers under the overall supervision of health and development personnel [Mundkur et al, 5Cs: The Holistic Development of the Young Child, Child Rights Trust, 2006]
IEC in innovative ways to convince parents to follow good parenting practices is one key approach. In the case of the young child, 'Parenting' will cover all these aspects and be a step-by-step guide for adhering to good practices. There are both government and NGO experiences and guidelines, training materials on these approaches that can be used on a wider, sustained scale.
Another need is to ensure that the family has food, housing and health security. Without these basics, at least to a partial extent, it is futile to expect the family to pay attention to less tangible aspects of child development.
A third is for govt. to strengthen home visits by Anganwadi Worker (AWWs), Auxiliary Nurse Midwives, and Accredited Social Health Activists for education of the family on the correct strategies, remedial action if the child's development is faltering, and learning in turn from innovative approaches where found.
Government should solicit the collaboration of NGOs for these and for IEC.
Several good practices exist in the country and these must be built upon, using the Strategies for Children under six as a guide.
Crèche workers and Anganwadi Workers must also be fully trained in catering to the under three child. The number of workers and functioning centers must be proportional to the number of children in the age group 0-6.
Private institutions have mushroomed in urban areas and even in some larger rural centers and are sometimes not run on lines that are beneficial to the child. There should be standard protocols, minimum standards, and regulations [licensing, supervision/monitoring] preferably by joint Government / NGO representatives of all institutions, private and govt.
All these issues may become buried even if the RTE act is amended to cover children below six, and the emphasis may be only on 'education' rather than the holistic development, i.e., the care, stimulation, health, hygiene and nutrition of the young child. Hence a separate act, that includes revision of ICDS and Crèche policies and strategies, is needed for this age group.
This Act should be for ECCD and not just ECCE as the latter term zeroes in the education emphasis rather than the development one, and the difference is crucially important.
Regards,
Padmini
Child Rights Trust
Bangalore
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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