In the world today, the educators with those who have shown themselves passionate for the child development must learn how to practice early childhood education. Education, generally for the children of the world, is biased and cannot be measured equally for diverse untenable reasons which may be political, socio-cultural, economic, etc. This is however owing to the several challenges posed by the current politico-economic segregation that is ravaging the world.
It is recorded that the richest children are 7 times more likely to attend ECE programmes than the poorest, just as children in urban areas are 1.5 times more likely to attend ECE programmes than those in rural areas Even so, the parental support for education is contributing factor. For instance, children of mothers with secondary education are 5 times more likely to attend ECE programmes.
However, it cannot be denied that equitable attendance in ECE programmes exists between girls and boys.
Science shows that life is a story for which the beginning sets the tone. That makes the early years of childhood a time of great opportunity, but also great risk. This is what many countries are not aware of. The supposed stakeholders do not see the early child education plan as something to really take more seriously given the strength of the debilitating economic factor with which they battle. To them, as far as food is provided, education can go rest.
But we must believe in the truth that children’s brains are built, moment by moment, as they interact with their environments. In the first few years of life, more than one million neural connections are formed each second – a pace never repeated again. The quality of a child’s early experiences makes a critical difference as their brains develop, providing either strong or weak foundations for learning, health and behavior throughout life.
Early childhood offers a critical window of opportunity to shape the trajectory of a child’s holistic development and build a foundation for their future. For children to achieve their full potential, as is their human right, they need health care and nutrition, protection from harm and a sense of security, opportunities for early learning, and responsive caregiving – like talking, singing and playing – with parents and caregivers who love them. All of this is needed to nourish developing brains and fuel growing bodies.
For many millions of the world’s most disadvantaged children – including children living in poverty or affected by conflict and crisis, children on the move, children belonging to communities facing discrimination, and children with disabilities – we are often missing this window of opportunity.
Millions of children are not receiving the nutrition or health care they need, growing up exposed to violence, polluted environments and extreme stress. They miss out on opportunities to learn and are deprived of the stimulation that their developing brains need to thrive. Their parents and caregivers struggle to get the time, resources and services necessary to provide their children with nurturing care in these contexts.
When children miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, they pay the price in lost potential – dying before they have a chance to grow up, or going through life with poor physical and mental health; struggling to learn and, later, to earn a living. And we all pay the price. Failing to give children the best start in life perpetuates cycles of poverty and disadvantage that can span generations, undermining the strength and stability of our societies.
A child’s right to education entails the right to learn. Yet, for too many children across the globe, schooling does not lead to learning.
Over 600 million children and adolescents worldwide are unable to attain minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, even though two thirds of them are in school. For out-of-school children, foundational skills in literacy and numeracy are further from grasp.
The Education of the Child
Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight.
Around the world, children are deprived of education and learning for various reasons. Poverty remains one of the most obstinate barriers. Children living through economic fragility, political instability, conflict or natural disaster are more likely to be cut off from schooling – as are those with disabilities, or from ethnic minorities. In some countries, education opportunities for girls remain severely limited.
Even in schools, a lack of trained teachers, inadequate education materials and poor infrastructure make learning difficult for many students. Others come to class too hungry, ill or exhausted from work or household tasks to benefit from their lessons.
Compounding these inequities is a digital divide of growing concern: Some two thirds of the world’s school-aged children do not have internet connection in their homes, restricting their opportunities to further their learning and skills development. It is time that you looked into how to practice early childhood education.
How to Practice Early Childhood Education.
Without quality education, children face considerable barriers to employment and earning potential later in life. They are more likely to suffer adverse health outcomes and less likely to participate in decisions that affect them – threatening their ability to shape a better future for themselves and their societies. Therefore, these are some of the things to consider when thinking of how to practice early childhood education:
1. Ensure vulnerable populations are not the last to benefit
Access to early childhood education has been slow and inequitable, both across and within countries. Worldwide, vulnerable children are disproportionately excluded from quality pre-primary education – even though it can have the greatest impact on them.
To ensure no child is left behind, Governments should adopt policies that commit to universal pre-primary education and prioritize the poorest and hardest-to-reach children at the start of the road to universality, not the end.
2. Scale up investment
Pre-primary education provides the highest return on investment of all education sub-sectors. Yet, it receives the smallest share of government expenditure compared to primary, secondary and tertiary education. Less than 1% of international aid to education currently supports pre-primary education, while less than 2% of education budgets are allocated to pre-primary education in low-income countries.
3. Progressively grow the pre-primary system, while improving quality
According to UNICEF reports, it is unfortunate to note that only 50% of pre-primary teachers in low-income countries are trained, and only 5% of pre-primary teachers globally work in low-income countries. Meanwhile, 9.3 million new teachers are needed to achieve universal pre-primary education. So, this further explains why efforts to scale up access to pre-primary education should not come at the expense of quality if truly you are interested in knowing how to practice early childhood education.
Quality is the sum of many parts, including teachers, families, communities, resources, and curricula. Without adequate safeguards for quality, expansion efforts can intensify education inequities. It is only by investing in quality as education systems grow – not after – that governments can expand access and maintain quality.
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