I listened to the podcast of Maysoun Chehab. Maysoun Chehab is the Regional Early Childhood Care and Development Program Coordinator at the Arab Resource Collective (ARC), a not-for-profit non-governmental organization based in Beirut, Lebanon. Ms. Chehab spoke of her work with a psychosocial intervention program after the war in Lebanon. This program worked to provide support for children and families. I was impressed with her statement that before they worked with the children, they trained the families and teacher and provided them with support and coping techniques. She stated that if the parents and teachers are not supported, they could support the child. This is important for all early childhood professionals to remember because the family is the primary environment and support for children.
I explored the website http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/. I read an article about the Big Push Initiative which is working to increase early childhood care and education in Africa. This is a much needed program because according to the website only 1 in 4 children between the ages of 0-8 attend preschool. This varies depending on the region with the average enrollment in West Africa around 19%. The other shocking statistic I read was the fact that sub-Saharan Africa needs one million teachers. UNESCO has a training initiative to help with training quality teachers. There has been a lot of progress with increasing early childhood education in Africa, but there is still a long way to go.
Hi Jennie
ReplyDeleteI was shocked as well when I read your post in regards to both the low enrollment of preschool children as well as the need for teachers in Africa. It clicked with me though when I think about how much more of a struggle it is for less developed countries to establish early childhood programs and other levels of education. Because when I think about how hard it is for our country which is advanced is so many ways, to struggle with providing quality early childhood programs for all children as well as view early childhood teachers as professionals those numbers for Africa are more realistic, not that it is acceptable . Through organizations such as UNESCO and many others, there is hope for all the children in the world that they will have the opportunities to experience quality early childhood as well as higher education. As you stated there has been lots of progress but there is still much more that needs to be done and it will take time. Access for children to early childhood programs as well as establishing quality teachers is definitely a global concern.