Recommendations. Early Childhood Education/Preschool Education Conference

Transcription

1 Recommendations Early Childhood Education/Preschool Education Conference Increasing early learning opportunities for children in Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, February 2012 Key messages: Importance of access and inclusion for ALL children including those who live in rural areas, minorities and children with disabilities. As highlighted by professor Ulf Janson from Stockholm University "when you face an obstacle the solution is not to take the child away but to adapt the service" Access and inclusion goes in parallel with ensuring the quality of these services. As quoted by Dr Pia Rebello Britto from Yale University, "Quality is a key ingredient not a luxury". Every early childhood education programme must be designed around the following core quality thresholds - minimum number of hours, number of children per teacher and teacher qualification - in order to produce expected positive outcomes for children. With the aim to increase access to and quality of early childhood education, support should be given to innovative early childhood education programmes and approaches. Parenting education has to be part of these programmes. 1

2 The lack of funding cannot be used as an excuse. As illustrated by Dr Emily Vargas Baron, investing in early childhood education provides the best return on investment in terms of savings for the society (less repetition and drop-out, better health etc). There is an opportunity to reallocate funds taking into account the declining number of students in primary and secondary schools due to demographic trends. General recommendations: 1. Legal framework: On the basis of the Framework Law on Preschool Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, adopt Laws on Preschool Education in three Cantons where they have not been adopted yet. This will provide a legal basis for equal rights to access of early childhood education for all children in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Adopt relevant sub-law acts, which will ensure efficient implementation of laws on preschool education at the entity, cantonal and community level. Simplify procedures of registration/accreditation and support the introduction of alternative models of preschool education as the strategy to increase enrolment. This recommendation is based on the fact that the current preschool education facilities have no capacity for accommodation/enrolment of all children who need to be included in early childhood education, especially in rural and marginalized communities. Adopt and implement Strategic Plans for Integrated Early Childhood Development in FBiH and RS. 2. Ensuring resources and quality: Initiate the reallocation of some funds to early childhood education taking into account the declining number of students in primary and secondary schools due to demographic trends. Develop Quality Assurance System for alternative models of early childhood education. Train teachers to apply child centred education methods, with a focus on cultural and developmental sensitivities, inclusive education, as well as understanding of the rights of the child. 3. Awareness raising: Promote an open dialogue among policy and decision makers on the importance of early childhood education. Implement a media campaign for parents about the importance of early childhood education. Empower parents to support rearing and development of their children. 2

3 Recommendations from parallel sessions Three critical themes were discussed: 1) Access to inclusive early childhood education (reaching the most vulnerable), 2) Financing and policy framework, 3) Quality of content in early childhood education. While the focus of the parallel sessions was on these specific areas of action, a number of concerns and needs were identified that cut across each of these, and where progress is required to bring about sustainable change: A human rights approach is critical in moving the debate forward on quality and effectiveness of preschool education Transforming the education system will require a decisive shift of policy attention towards early childhood education as the crucial stage of lifelong learning It is imperative to make ECE services widely available to all children. At the same time, education change can be a means to pull in changes in other sectors, primarily health and social welfare. 3

4 A) Access to inclusive early childhood education (reaching the most vulnerable) Evidence of the critical importance of preschool years for early child development is now well established. Investing in early childhood services brings the highest returns in later life and yet is still to be widely applied and such services made available for marginalized and vulnerable children. Comprehensive assistance must be provided through inter-sectoral cooperation (education, health, finance, social policy) and should include targeted and easy accessible social assistance such as: Creation of inter-sectoral teams at entity, cantonal or local level to ensure cooperation between responsible bodies and coherence and synergy of comprehensive assistance. Setting up integrated early childhood development centres within communities with programmes for preschool education and targeted intervention for hard to reach young children and parents. Increasing parental skills and encouraging their involvement in their children s development and learning at home and in kindergartens or community based services. Support to the families for meals, clothing and transportation, and didactic materials, if needed. Build a Quality Assurance system for alternative approaches such as Integrated Early Childhood Development with high quality preschool services, and provide all necessary standards, guidelines, curricula, materials, pre- and in-service training. Focus on preschool personnel in the Strategic Plan for Integrated Early Childhood Development to establish universal Early Childhood Development services and personnel standards, regulations and certification for: Early care and education: 0 to 3 services; Integrated Early Childhood Centres; parent education; Early Childhood Intervention services. Develop by-laws on early inclusion. B) Quality of content in early childhood education Including children from vulnerable groups early into the education systems, prior to compulsory education needs to be actively promoted through easy language acquisition, acquiring skills and specific knowledge, boosting self-respect and socializing into the culture of the formal education system. Based on best practices, it is recommended to: Develop and scale up preschool programmes for preschool children. 4

5 Ensure tailor made training (with a focus on cultural and developmental sensitivities, inclusive education, and understanding of the rights of the child) is provided to teachers and preschool management. Provide quality early childhood education, with open, sensitive, attractive curriculum and well trained, sensitive and caring teachers. Introduce legal provision for individualized approaches to teaching in preschool education, so that all children can fully benefit and standards can be met. Inform parents of the benefits of good quality preschool education and include parents into preparation of children for schools - the beliefs and needs of each family must be taken into account, social values and experiences must be respected. Set quality standards in early childhood education at the state level. Develop standards of learning outcome of Early Childhood Education Programme (what should children know when they finish the programme). C) Financing framework Public financing, and the way it is allocated, is the key policy lever for governments to achieve better education outcomes in relation to higher attainment and better learning for children. If allocated inadequately, public funding not only fails to reduce educational disadvantage, but may actually worsen it if there are built-in incentives for segregation or lower quality education. Helping socially disadvantaged children enrol and achieve better learning outcomes will require additional financing for preschool education. However, if allocated well, these additional investments can be expected to yield substantial returns in the future ultimately contributing to a more educated and productive population. It is therefore recommended to: Improve municipal data collection and planning mechanisms to enable municipalities to develop plans to ensure better access, inclusion and improved quality of early childhood education services. Present the model for primary school enrolment data base. Introduce categorical (earmarked) grants for specific programmes to raise preschool enrolment of socially disadvantaged children, such as extra financing to pay teachers. Such programmes should recognise the additional costs of providing good quality integrated preschool education to children from diverse backgrounds. Allocate financing per pupil, to make up for initial educational disadvantage Allocate funding for training of teachers at both pre and in service levels. Provide adequate funding for early childhood services and for integrated kindergarten and preschool services with group sizes, child-staff ratios, qualified staff and curriculum based on educational standards and by-laws. Conduct a feasibility study on the "Identification and assessment of actual needs for preschools education at BiH level". 5

6 The way ahead Demographic and economic pressures underline the need to see preschool education as an investment, not a cost. New partnerships for early childhood education need to be built and supported, with linkages to existing networks. Concrete actions related to each of the three focus areas can contribute to transforming the lives of children. It was therefore agreed that a major effort would be made to take these actions to scale in the coming period. In the coming years UNICEF remains committed to continue supporting quality inclusive education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. More specifically, UNICEF will collaborate with all partners in: 1. Supporting the expansion of ECE in BiH e.g. through Call for proposals to municipalities for projects on increasing the preschool education enrolment for children age 3-6 (launched by UNICEF BiH early February 2012). 2. Establishing and supporting the work of Integrated Early Childhood Development centres at municipal level. 3. Supporting the introduction of the database for monitoring primary school enrolment at the local level, through the Social Protection and Inclusion project. 4. Conducting a financial analysis for the expansion of preschool education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will show how the preschool is currently financed and whether this financing can be made more efficient. Policy recommendations will be made. Alternative and cost effective models of early childhood education will also be explored. 6