Early Childhood Care and Education: Worldwide

Challenges and Progresses
Volume 11 / 2009

(rev 11/2009)

ISSN 1523-1615
Available at http://www.tc.edu/cice

"The consensus seems to be that early exposure to learning experiences

in a stimulating environment will lead children to perform better in primary schools. In time

these individuals become more productive, healthier citizens in democratic society. Researchers

have determined that the long-term effect of early learning and education can be observed in all

children with varying abilities, including those with or at risk of developmental delay (CICE, 2009)".

This movement in education has been almost universal.

Many developed countries have begunto turn their attention to “very early” education of children from birth to

pre-primary ages.

"Focused development of early childhood education programs is now in demand. The general

disposition is that the age-scope of early childhood education should be extended from preschool

and pre-primary ages to all young children from birth (Gallagher, Clifford, & Maxwell, 2004)."

While the concern for early childhood development is universal each geographic location may have varying concerns and barriers.  Often these barriers create inequity and possibly a lack of quality.

Many nations mentioned in the article have high poverty rates and experience a lack of funding to have proper and adequate materials and quality staff.  Some classrooms are only partially furnished, often only having some of the text books.  This creates an inequity in service and doesn't place all children on the same level for learning.  Struggles exist for all nations, to address policy change.  While the research is there to support the importance of early development it is crucial that policies are in place to help create a strong system that uses standards as a guide to curriculum and assessments of quality.

Center on the Developing Child: Harvard University

As part of its Global Children’s Initiative, the Center is launching Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, its first major programmatic effort outside the United States. In collaboration with local experts, this project aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil

NEW FINDINGS

NEW FINDINGS

The overview is just a taste of what evidence based research that they offer early childhood professionals:

OVERVIEW:

The Pew Center on the States completed its 10-year campaign to advance high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds in 2011. Through its successes, Pre-K Now changed the national conversation about pre-k education, and in its final report, challenged the nation’s policy makers to transform public education by moving away from the current K-12 system to pre-K-12.

The article(s) Transforming Public Education  (Pre-k Now challenges our nation's policymakers to transform public education by moving from a K-12 to an evidence-based Pre-K-12 system) offers great information about the importance of good policy surrounding Pre-K.

Unbeknownst to me, “the 2007 Head Start Act reauthoriza­tion required creation of State Advisory Councils (Councils) to facilitate development of improved and comprehensive policies for a birth-to-five early childhood system, including state-funded pre-k.2 Yet many states are only now beginning to create strong connections among pre-k, Councils, and education reform, (Goffin, Regenstein, 2011)”.  The state of Michigan, my home state, started their approach to this mandate in 2006 and I’m thankful to be a part of it.

One of my favorite things about this website is that you can check updates based on State.

I was unaware of the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign which promotes cost-effective policies to expand access to dental care and ensure that more children receive the basic care they need to grow, learn, and lead healthy lives.

India & Poverty

With an estimated 1.03 billion citizens in 2001, India's population is second only to China's. With 260.2 million people living in poverty as of 1999-2000

Over the last five decades India has made systematic efforts to alleviate poverty through measures to increase economic growth

An estimated 400 million of the population are between 0-18 years.  Life for many of India's children is very hard. Almost half of all children (about 62 million) under the age of five are malnourished and 34 percent of new-borns are significantly underweight.  Important achievements have been made in health and education.  But India still accounts for 20 per cent of the world's out-of-school children. It has the largest numbers of working children in the world, with nearly a third of children below 16 years working

India's anti poverty programmes are mainly run by the central government.
There are three main types -
1) rural employment creation and infrastructure development programmes
2) self-employment
3) food subsidy programs.
 All three have been subject to reform in recent years to ensure better targeting and coverage


(Information provided by Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre)

PEW Center

I have received the PEW Center quarterly magazine for the last 2 years, it continues to be a source of inovation when it comes to the private and public sector funding, early childhood programs and their link to economic development. 

http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now-328067

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Overview

The Pew Center on the States completed its 10-year campaign to advance high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds in 2011. Through its successes, Pre-K Now changed the national conversation about pre-k education, and in its final report, challenged the nation’s policy makers to transform public education by moving away from the current K-12 system to pre-K-12.



Visit the Pew Home Visiting and Children's Dental Campaigns and the Families and Health issue sections of this website to learn more about critical programs for young children.

Current Information: