Early Childhood Care and Education

As ECE, we all know that learning begins at birth but the focus on the value of high-quality early childhood education eludes many and unfortunately, by the time a child reached the primary education level, some are faced with cognitive, social and emotional challenges that can have lifelong impacts for them.   Four areas that are discussed in the article are quality; access and equity; investment and financing; coordination and integration.

Quality: Early childhood care and education programs should emphasize the child’s holistic development and extend beyond assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling. High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness.

Access and Equity: The problems with high quality programs are the costs to access them.  Many are not able and must settle for less which is where the main issues lie.  Yes there are some funds for the severely disadvantaged, but unfortunately, the majority of the population exists in a gap where they make too much to receive assistance and too little to truly afford high quality services. So the real question is how can we bridge the gap so every child has equal access, regardless of the socioeconomic status, to a high quality early childhood program?

Investment and Financing: The government has limited the allocation of the funds dedicated to education with stipulations that make it impossible for the group mentioned above to access and if they deal with the issue at all, often approach early childhood from the context of national social policy or health services. The 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA), stated that countries should view early childhood as part of basic education. Once countries recognize the positive value of state investment in this area, the next challenge is to mobilize funds and that is where the private sector businesses are encouraged to assist.

Coordination and Integration: Coordination issues include coherent regulation, funding and staffing schemes and a common vision of care and education. Effective coordination must exist among sectors at both national and local level, and also between public and private establishments.

Each of these areas must be addressed if we are to make positive strides to provide quality education for our children and fair compensation for the wonderful educators out there struggling to do their jobs on the very limited resources available to them.

Reference

Early Childhood | Education | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization." Early Education. Early Childhood Education United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, n.d. Web. 19 June 2015.