Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part I

January 25, 2014

I have selected two new international countries since I have not received any updated information regarding their Early Childhood program. I have selected Morocco and Ghana.


Egypt: My contact is Mr. Hicham MOUKRAM
The Child Poverty and Disparities in Egypt: Building the Social Infrastructures for Egypt’s Future study is the first comprehensive study in Egypt which focuses on both poverty and childhood and was in early 2010.  The eight dimensions of poverty considered in the study (income, shelter, food, education, information, health, sanitation, water) are interrelated and interdependent. Deprivation of one right is likely to affect a child’s ability to enjoy other rights. The study reveals that one in four Egyptian children (more than seven million) live deprived of one or more of their rights to be children and enjoy their childhood. Around 1.2 million children live in absolute poverty, which means they are deprived of two or more rights.

The brighter we make the lives of our children, the

brighter the future of our nation.

Ghana: Definition of Child Development 
and Educational Outcomes 
Child development refers to the ordered emergence 
of interdependent skills of sensorimotor, cognitive– 
language, and social–emotional functioning, which 
depend on the child’s physical well-being, the family 
context, and the larger social network.7 Educational 
outcomes in this paper include school readiness, reten­
tion, drop-out, educational achievement, and years of 
schooling completed. School readiness refers to skills 
children need to profit from the educational experi­
ences of formal schooling.8 School readiness is gener­
ally defined as a broad set of skills that affect children’s 
ability to learn in school: physical health, motor skills, 
self-care, emotional and behavioral self-regulation, so­
cial skills, communication skills, pre-academic skills, 
attention, and curiosity and motivation to learn, al­
though some argue that it should be limited to literacy 
and numeracy skills.

Sharing Web Resources

January 18, 2014

ZERO TO THREE

www.zerotothree.org

Zerotothree is a national, nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture to early development.

This Issue and Why It Matters

This article deals with the misconceptions and myths regarding immigrant families in the United States. People believed that immigrants fall into one category of homogeneous of higher risk of living in poverty, suffer from poor quality health care, and lack access to quality early care and education. However many immigrants are borne in the United States and legal citizens; therefore they have strengths of immigrant families, such as health benefits related to higher rates of breast-feeding and immunization, better nutritional status in newcomer families, the greater likelihood of children living in two-parent families, and the positive effect learning multiple languages may have on cognitive and neural development. In addition, we as United State citizens have to speak up and help end the misconceptions and stereotypes remarks. 

Reference

http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/ZTT29-2_nov_08.pdf?docID=7241

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

January 11, 2014

Part 1:

HEADQUARTERS

Abbie Raikes
Section for Basic Education
UNESCO Headquarters
ha.raikes(at)unesco.org

In 1945, UNESCO was created in order to respond to the firm belief of nations, forged by two world wars in less than a generation  that political and economic agreements are not enough to build a lasting peace. Peace must be established on the basis of humanity’s moral and intellectual solidarity.

UNESCO strives to build networks among nations that enable this kind of solidarity, by:

·         Mobilizing for education: so that every child, boy or girl, has access to quality education as a fundamental human right and as a prerequisite for human development.

·         Building intercultural understanding: through protection of heritage and support for cultural diversity. UNESCO created the idea of World Heritage to protect sites of outstanding universal value.

·         Pursuing scientific cooperation: such as early warning systems for tsunamis or trans-boundary water management agreements, to strengthen ties between nations and societies.

·         Protecting freedom of expression: an essential condition for democracy, development and human dignity.

Part 1:

The first initiative step I took was to browse through the list of contacts you had provided for us to choose from than I found the one that interest me the most. Therefore once I selected this country I found it to be interesting and educational. 

Mission

©UNESCO/Katy Anis

The foundations of human development are laid during the child's early years and thus early childhood requires an integrated approach to the child's care, development and learning.

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) is more than a preparatory stage assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling. Today, early childhood policies are placed within a broader context of social development, gender equity and poverty reduction.

UNESCO leads the international policy drive for an integrated early childhood care and education system that encompasses both the well-being and holistic development of the child. Our mission is to support early childhood policy development with the aim to build a solid foundation for a child’s lifelong learning.

UNESCO actively works with Member States in their efforts to develop and strengthen their national capacity to meet the first goal of the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action, which aims to expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education for all.

Part II:

I selected ZERO TO THREE because as a preschool teacher and desire to teach early childhood education as higher learning instructor I wanted to know how a child develops from the early years of life. Furthermore I find these years as foundation years whereas children can soak up all the knowledge parents and educators can provide or feed them. During this age children love the surroundings and use their five senses especially their hands and mouths. Therefore as teachers we have to be ready to allow them discover their own world by using their imaginations.

We welcome you to ZERO TO THREE’s website. ZERO TO THREE is a national nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and the know-how to nurture early development.

Neuroscientists have documented that our earliest days, weeks and months of life are a period of unparalleled growth when trillions of brain cell connections are made. Research and clinical experience also demonstrate that health and development are directly influenced by the quality of care and experiences a child has with his parents and other adults.

That is why at ZERO TO THREE our mission is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers.

We know that as babies, the way we are held, talked to and cared for teaches us about who we are and how we are valued. This profoundly shapes who we will become.

Early experiences set a course for a lifelong process of discovery about ourselves and the world around us. Simply put, early experiences matter. We encourage you to learn more about very young children, early development and the work of ZERO TO THREE by exploring our site.

I contact each association with great interest and truly want to develop a strong commitment to education and by using their resources will enable me to have a better understanding in other countries and a professional educator.