Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part 3

              

 Big Push workshop to accelerate early childhood care and education in Africa

Among the 19 African countries that have joined the Big Push Initiative to accelerate Education for All, four countries have chosen to focus on boosting early childhood care and education (ECCE). They are Angola, São Tomé & Principe, Swaziland and Zambia.

Other countries (Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia) have also voiced their interest in this important area that is extremely important to prepare young children for school and learning.

Seven training modules based on research results have been produced by the UNESCO Institute for Capacity-Building (IICBA) and partners. The modules form the IECCE model, which provides tools, skills and resources to people working with vulnerable children and their families. One of the fundamentals of IECCE model is that local and indigenous children are to be educated within their cultural context. 

The IECCE modules are living documents with a goal to build capacities among, inter alia, parents, older relations in the households and extended family members, elders in the neighborhood, older siblings, including helpers and interested stakeholders who can read and write in their local language.The learning can therefore be home-, community- or institutional based. 

Early Childhood Care and Education is having a hard time in Africa. Only a little more than one out of four African child aged between 0-8 get a chance to attend some kind of preschool activities. But the situation differs enormously between countries and region. According to 2010 data the situation is as follows:

• In Southern Africa (SADC), early childhood enrollment stood at 45% on average
• In East Africa (EAC), only Kenya and Tanzania achieved above 30% level while the average went up to 27%.
• In Central Africa (ECCAS), despite the fact that pre-primary enrollment has more than doubled, the average has only reached 26%.
• In West Africa (ECOWAS) (with the exception of Cabo Verde and Ghana), progress has been more timid and rates (19 percent on average) and well below the average of 28% in sub-Saharan Africa.

This training workshop is the result of combined efforts by IICBA, UNESCO Dakar, UNESCO Windhoek, The Ministry of Education of Burkina Faso, The national Commission for UNESCO of Burkina Faso, CIEFFA, OSISA, UNICEF Uganda and Plan International.

The insights I have gained after reading this article is that children need us to advocate for them to improve their education. One of my professional goals is to become a highly-qualified teacher so I can be better prepared to educate and teach my children to be successful in school. The workshops that are being provided in my agency and in these countries can be very beneficial to many including the children.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/single-view/news/big_push_workshop_to_accelerate_early_childhood_care_and_education_in_africa/#.U1M3kaIbX0F