By Lubna
Toheed
Keywords;
The issue of early child education, Developmental domains in early hood, Pre-primary
education statistics, curriculum of
ECCE programs, Developmental domains in early
hood, Policy
Actions of national education policy 2009
Trend and issues early child hood education
in Pakistan
Introduction:
The importance of early childhood care and development
(ECCD) in general and early childhood education (ECE) in particular, is now
well established. It is widely acknowledged that the effects of the kind of
early care a child receives from parents, pre-school teachers and caregivers,
determines how well a child learns and performs throughout his/her life. The
early years are critical for the acquisition of the concepts, skills and attitudes
that lay the foundation for lifelong learning. These include the acquisition of
language, perception-motor skills, problem-solving skills and a love for
learning.
It is during the early care that a child develops all the
key elements of emotional intelligence, namely confidence, curiosity,
purposefulness, self control, connectedness, the capacity to communicate and
co-cooperativeness.
It is evident that it is during the crucial early years;
when experience is molding the brain. The brain is never elastic again as it in
the childhood, in the term of receptivity and vulnerability. Early childhood
experiences are the building block of development and the child is architect of
his/her own brain, piecing together the puzzle and reacting to the outside
world.
Objective
·
What
is early child hood education ?
·
Significance
of early child education.
·
Present
condition of early child education in Pakistan.
·
Problems
faced by ECE in Pakistan.
·
Recommendation
for the improvement of early child education.
The
issue of early child education
According to the latest Census Report (1998), the total
population of under 5-year age group in Pakistan is
18.6 million which is 14.2% of the 130.58 million population of the country.
The importance of early childhood education is now well
established. It is widely acknowledged that the early care and education a
child receives from parents, pre-school teachers determines how well a child learns and
performs throughout his/her life. .
It has been observed that there are very few private
early childhood education schools in Pakistan. Such as Mehnaz Fatima
Montessori opened in 1998 in northern area(registered in 1999 under the
voluntary Social Welfare Agency Ordinance 1961), Nasra Pre-Primary
School – Karachi,
Beacon House School
– Hyderabad,
These schools have been opened on the initiatives of some local people and they
also have a commercial base. It has been observed that the school fees are so
high that the parents of urban and especially of rural areas of Pakistan can
not send their children to these schools. Secondly, there are government
schools which ensure that the children in kachi peheli be prepared for class
one. They do not look after the developmental needs of children. Therefore
children are deprived of early childhood education due to expensiveness,
inaccessibility (private sector) and poor quality (public sector).
Definition (ECE):
Early childhood education regards education in early
childhood, one of the most vulnerable stages in life. According to the NAEYC
(National Association for the Education of Young Children), it spans the human
life from birth to age eight.
The
term early childhood education emphasizes the comprehensive nature of
development, which takes place before the child goes to school. It is concerned
with physical, linguistic, social, cognitive and educational growth of a child
in its first five to six years (Baker, 1987)
Robert Myers (1992) in his book Twelve Who Survive
emphasized that early childhood development is a continuous process it
begins from the parental period and extends through the entire period of
childhood. Therefore, Robert Myers suggests that early childhood care and
education should fulfill the needs of the children from birth to eight years
(Myers1985).
Other terms that are often used interchangeably with
"early childhood education" are "early childhood learning,"
"early care" , “child care and education,” and "early
education."
Early childhood education often focuses on children
learning through play. The term, "early childhood education," is
often used to describe preschool or baby / child care programs.
National
definition of other ECCE :
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is defined as
both formal and informal as well as public or private day care, health,
nutrition, or education services for children.
National definition of ISCED 0 programs:
Early Childhood Education (ECE), termed katchi or
pre-primary, is defined as both formal and informal as well as public or
private education services for children aged 3-5 years. (ISCED
= International Standard Classification of Education and development)
(UNESCO
International Bureau of Education (IBE) report 2006)
Significance
The importance of early childhood care
and development (ECCD) in general and early childhood education (ECE) in
particular, is now well established. It is widely acknowledged that the effects
of the kind of early care a child receives from parents, pre-school teachers
and caregivers, determines how well a child learns and performs throughout
his/her life. The early years are critical for the acquisition of the concepts,
skills and attitudes that lay the foundation for lifelong learning. These
include the acquisition of language, perception-motor skills, problem-solving
skills and a love for learning. With good quality early education, educational
efficiency would improve as children would acquire the basic concepts, skills
and attitudes required for successful learning and development prior to or
shortly after entering the system, thus reducing the chances of failure; and
the system, too, would be freed of under-age and under-prepared learners who
have proven to be the most at risk in terms of school failure and drop-out.
Other benefits of early care and
education relate to increased economic productivity over a lifetime and better
standards of living when the child becomes an adult. It is also proven that
intervening in the earliest years help to reduce social and economic
disparities and gender inequalities that divide our society.
“Early Childhood Education confers
benefits to the child’s cognitive development and better social and emotional
adaptation. Neurological studies have found that children’s brain development
has particularly high potential around age three, when appropriate stimulating learning
environment, which can just as well be playing activity, can increase the
physical size of the brain itself. In economic terms, there are long-term
positive effects of ECE on employment, labour force participation and earnings.
The broader social impacts include better health, lower incidence of antisocial
behavior and greater civic participation. Studies estimate that ECE is a sound
investment: for each dollar invested in quality early childhood education
governments provides a return ranging any where from 2 to 13 dollars.”
(NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2009)
Developmental domains in early hood:
There are 5 mainly different developmental domains of
children which all relate to each other. They are easily referred to as the
SPICE of life:
·
Social - Refers mostly to the ability to form attachments, play
with others, co- operation and
sharing, and being able to create lasting relationships with others.
·
Physical - Development of Fine (small) and Gross (large) Motor
Skills.
·
Intellectual - The process of making sense of
the world around them.
·
Creative - The development of special abilities creating talents.
Music, Art, Writing, Reading, and Singing are all ways for creative development
to take place.
·
Emotional - Development of self-awareness,
self-confidence, and coping with feelings as well as understanding them.
International
ECE Initiatives
Historically, formal early childhood education has arisen
in response to the needs of middle and upper income group of developed countries.
Later on it became a part of the educational system in the Third
World (Baker1987).
Early Childhood Education (ECE) began to regain
prominence among policy-mkers in developing countries after the commitment to
early childhood care and development activities as one of the six goals of EFA
at the World Education Conference (1990).
The World Conference on Education for All, held in
Jomtien in March 1990, adopted a Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning
Needs which included six EFA “target dimensions”, of which one was related
to early childhood care and development:
“Expansion of early childhood care and development
activities, including family and community interventions, especially for poor,
disadvantaged and disabled children”.
The commitment was renewed, a decade later, at the World
Education Forum, held in Dakar,
in April, 2000. Now international community has committed itself to the
attainment of the following early childhood development goal:
“Expanding and improving comprehensively early childhood
care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged
children.”
.
Early child hood education in Pakistan
In Pakistan
too an awakening has occurred about early childhood education. The government
has also included kachi peheli and paki peheli in their educational plan. Many
private organizations established preschools in various parts of Pakistan. Most
of the preschools in Pakistan
concentrate on the educational needs of the children and often do not address
the psycho-social needs of the children.
Early Childhood Education had been well organized and
formalized till seventies. Katchi or pre-primary classes were organized in the
formal primary schools. However, officially this practice was almost
discontinued during eighties.
After the commitment to early childhood care and
development activities as one of the six goals of EFA at the World Education
Conference (1990), this dimension began to regain prominence among
policy-makers in Pakistan.
Realizing the role and significance of early childhood
education, especially for improving the learning achievement/ competencies,
provision has been made in the National Education Policy (1998-2010) to
reintroduce Katchi/ preprimary class as a formal class in primary schools,
extending the primary education for six years - Katchi to grade V.
“Katchi class at primary level shall be introduced as
a part of the effort to improve achievements of pupils” and “Katchi
class shall be institutionalized in the primary cycle gradually and
progressively.”
Implementation of this policy provision has not started
that time due to scarcity of resources. Pakistan's priority area were
primary education (5-9 age group).
More recently, early childhood learning received a
further impetus from the Dakar Framework for Action (April, 2000) which renewed
the call for the expansion and improvement of early childhood care and
education. In response to the Forum commitments, Pakistan developed a
comprehensive National Plan of Action (NPA) for EFA, recently formulated as a
long-term framework (2001-15), to be implemented in three five-year phases,
with early childhood education as one of its three areas of focus; the
other two being universal primary education and adult literacy.
The strategic activities outlined in the NPA to achieve
the target of participation rate of 50% by 2015 include:
Ø Policy makers, planners, managers/administrators,
teachers and parents will be sensitized about the importance and significance
of early childhood care and education;
Ø Katchi class, already functional in primary
schools, will be recognized and strengthened and this program will be expanded
and opening of katchi classes in the public sector primary schools will be a
major program for improving the access in ECE under NPA;
Ø Adequate financial allocations for ECE will be
ensured to provide the inputs proposed such as additional classroom, one
teacher, audio-visual aids, teaching, learning and instructional materials;
Ø Efforts will
be made to improve coordination among the various stakeholders involved in ECE
programs. District and provincial EFA Forums will be established and
strengthened for the purpose;
Ø The services of Teachers Resource Centre (TRC)
Karachi will be utilized as a resource institution for providing policy and
professional backup for ECE at the national, provincial and district levels;
Ø Statistical
data and other related information on core ECE indicators would be regularly
collected through EMIS, PIHS and other sources for analysis and dissemination;
Ø Full-time teachers for kachi classes will be
recruited and trained;
Ø Instructional material, teaching kit and
audio-visual aids for ECE will be developed and provided – the ECE curriculum
has already been developed by the Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education
with collaboration from the Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC).
According to the National Plan of Action, over 40,000 ECE
centers were to be established during 2001- 15, and over 3,000 ECE teachers
were to be trained and recruited annually in the public sector – a total of
51,000 teachers during the period 2001-15. Teachers’ training was to be
imparted in the existing Teacher Training institutions by trained ECE master
trainers. The total financial requirement to meet these targets was estimated
to be Rs 47.7 billion during the 15-year period.
Unfortunately, there has been no implementation of this
action plan. Apart from the funds released by the federal government to the
provinces for ECE under the Education Sector Reforms (ESR) in 2001/0 2-
2002/03, no specific allocations have been made in the provincial budgets for
this area.
A total amount of
Rs56.94 million was released for Early Childhood Education by the Federal
Government to the provinces and areas in 2001/02 as follows:
The ESR/ECE funds were spent by NWFP, Balochistan and
FATA on the improvement of the “katchi” class in existing public sector
schools. Besides this, there were, however, no fi nancial contributions made
for ECE by the provinces, except by Punjab,
indicating that provinces/areas did not consider it as a priority area in
education. There were no more allocations made to ECE by the Federal
Government.
(UNESCO
International Bureau of Education (IBE) report 2006)
Pre-primary education
statistics:
(Preparatory Document for the
Ministerial Meeting of South Asia EFA Forum (21-23 May, 2003)
The
total pre-primary-aged population (ages 3 & 4 years) declined from 8.19
million in 2001/02 to 7.18 million in 2005/06, recording an average growth rate
-1.2% per annum during this period. Pre-primary enrolment (katchi) enrolments
registered a remarkable average growth rate of over 9% per annum and increased
from 2.97 millions to 4.39 millions.
Policy Actions of national education policy 2009:
v
Improvements
in quality of ECE shall be based on a concept of holistic development of the
child that provides a stimulating, interactive environment, including play,
rather than a focus on regimes that require rote learning rigid achievement
standards.
v
The
early childhood education (ECE) age group shall be recognised as comprising 3 to
5 years. At least one year pre-primary education shall be provided by the state
and universal access to ECE shall be ensured within the next ten years.
v
Provision
of ECE shall be attached to primary schools, and these schools shall be
provided with additional budget, teachers and assistants for this purpose.
v
For
ECE teachers, a two-year specialised training in dealing with young children
shall be a necessary requirement.
v
This
training shall be on the basis of ECE revised national curriculum. The curriculum
and support material for ECE shall take account of the cultural diversity of
particular areas.
Information concerning the curriculum of ECCE
programs
v
Several
NGOs have developed teaching-learning materials for ECE. These include
Children’s Resource International (CRI); the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF); the
Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC) and the College of Home Economics,
Lahore.
v
Various
kinds of teaching and learning aids such as blocks, charts, posters, handbooks,
flashcards, teachers’ guides; planners; teachers’ kits; etc. have been
developed by several organizations.
v
.ECE National Curriculum has been designed in
collaboration with Teachers’ Resource Centre Sindh to meet the basic needs for
interaction and stimulation of children of 3-5 years age group in the formal
elementary education system in Pakistan.
v
The same curriculum has been adopted by Government
of Pakistan Ministry of Education (Curriculum Wing) Islamabad since August 2002 in all the
Provinces.
v
Federal ECE Curriculum has also been translated into
Urdu and Sindhi by Bureau of Curriculum and Extension Wing Sindh, will be
followed by the Directorate of Literacy & NFE, Karachi for E.C.E.
Children.
The
actual situation
Besides ESR and policy action of national education
policy 2009, and introduction of ECE curriculum ,the situation is still
unsatisfactory. In government schools the children below to age 5 usually sit
with their old sibling, thy are not enrolled, they are not teach in separate
class by separate teachers. Proper attention is not given to the development of
basic skills.
In private sector schools, especially schools run on
commercial basis, pre-primary education
is well organized, being an essential part of primary education. However, due
to their high fees, these private schools cater only to the needs of the
relatively affluent urban class, excluding a large section of the society
comprising poor families. Almost all such schools arrange preprimary education
in the form of Nursery, Pre-nursery or Kindergarten KG-I, KG-II classes.
In Pakistan,
early childhood education suffers from a series of problems which include:
v
lack
of realization and awareness about the importance of the benefits of early
childhood education;
v
absence
of well-defined policy, laws and rules for early childhood education;
v
lack
of ECE facilities and infrastructure in schools such as separate pre-primary
classroom, separate teacher; separate materials;
v
financial
allocation to ECE is negligible, especially in relation to the needs of the
children;
v
lack
of coordination among the various government departments related to early
childhood care and education and also among the different service providers
such as managements of public schools; private schools; NGOs; and other related
community-based organizations; and
v
provinces,
district communities and schools lack the capacity to plan, implement and
monitor ECE programmes.
Recommendations
The impediments faced by any organization implementing
ECE program are many and diverse. Many questions arise and concerns make the
whole implementation a daunting task. Questions may range from achievement of
the goal of a project, expansion, budget, capacity building of the government
itself, baseline data, to replicability and sustainability of all such programs
at the grass root level. The key to success for any ECE program is to involve
the community and the government offices in a true spirit of public-private
partnership.
Some recommendations are given below:
v
Early
childhood education should be a part of the educational policy of the
government.
v
The
government should reserve a specific grant for early childhood development in
their educational plans
v
The
curriculum of early childhood education should also include health and
psycho-social aspects of development besides academic development of children.
v
The
government should give authority to local communities for participation in the
private sector to explore and to identify organizations to deliver early
childhood education at local level.
v
The
early childhood education institutions should be supported in effective
organization and management by the government and private initiative.
v
The
training centers for preschool teachers should be established to develop the
abilities of teachers to conduct activity based teaching.
v
In
early childhood schools, open space to play and explore should be provided. In
addition a garden, water, sand play and pet animals should be available for the
children. The children should be allowed to experiment in a natural environment.
v
The
ministry of education should introduce a curriculum on ‘human development’ to
the students of higher classes. It will give young people greater understanding
of the importance of early childhood development, its consequences and their
future role as parents. It could lead to better informed society.
v
The
private sector should be encouraged to give priority to early childhood
development.
Outcome
of ECE
1. Increase in Greater Enrollment Rate.
2. Decrease of drop-out rate in primary
education .
3. Support Education For All- Universal
Primary Education (UPE) Programme.
4. Increase access to out-of-school
children.
5. Strengthen the base for primary /
elementary education.
6. Enhance achievement of basic learning
competencies of children.
7. Increase completion rate of primary
schooling .
8. Improving cognitive development (
thinking and reasoning).
9. Improving social development
(relationship to others).
10. Improving emotional development (self
image, security).
11. Improving language skills.
12. Enhance creative skills .
References
·
Baker,
W. (1987) Early Childhood Care and
Education: the Challenge, Occasional Paper No 1,Hague :Bernard Van Leer
Foundation
·
Myer,
R. (1992) The Twelve Who Survive. London: Routledge.
·
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_childhood
·
An Evaluation Study of Early Childhood Education
(ECE) in Pakistan;
PhD Thesis of Dr Shahida
Mohiuddin, ITREB- Pakistan: Retrieved 25/05/09 from:http://www.aku.edu/ied/conference2008/doc/Papers/An%20Evaluation%20Study%20of%20Early%20Childhood%20Education%20(ECE)%20in%20Pakistan%20Shahida%20Mohiuddin%20Paper.pdf
·
Financing of education in Pakistan(2003);Preparatory Document
for the Ministerial Meeting of South Asia EFA Forum (21-23 May, 2003) Retrieved
19/05/09 from: http://www.moe.gov.pk/study.pdf
·
Pakistan Early Childhood Care and
Education (ECCE) programmes (2006) ;Compiled by: UNESCO International Bureau of Education
(IBE) Geneva, (Switzerland)
2006, Retrieved 19/05/09 from:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001472/147222e.pdf
·
National
Curriculumfor ECE (2007)
·
ECE Policy review(2008) Prepared by Federal Ministry of
Education and Children’s Resources, International (CRI;retrieved 29/05/09 from: http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/appeal/ECCE/reports_and_publications/Final_Policy_Review_Report-_ECCE_pakistan.pdf
·
National
curriculum for Early Child Education,2009
