CHAPTER II: Early Childhood Care and Education

Why Does ECCE Matter?

In the international context, the first goal of the Education For All Dakar Framework for Action 2000 calls for “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.” Moreover, UNICEF has declared that the international community should award far greater recognition to the role of ECCE in a broader global anti-poverty strategy, stating: “Reaching the Millennium Development Goals and reducing poverty depends on efforts to support young children’s rights to health, education, protection and equality. Holistic ECCE can make a major difference in reducing poverty and hunger (MDG1) and child mortality (MDG4), and can help combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG6)” (UNICEF, 2003).

In addition, extensive global research has concluded:

• Early intervention is crucial: it is far more challenging and costly to compensate for educational and social disadvantages among older children and adults than to provide preventative measures and support in early childhood (UNESCO)

• Children from the poorest backgrounds benefit most from ECCE provision in term of care, education and health

• Developing ECCE programmes while improving the functioning of primary schools is likely to result in more timely entry into the school system and less grade repetition, thus allowing additional enrolment

• High-quality early childhood education is one of the best investments a nation can make in its young people

It should come as no surprise, then, that OECD countries provide children with access to at least two years of free ECCE before they begin primary school.

Defining ECCE

According to UNESCO, ECCE refers to a wide range of programmes “all aimed at physical, cognitive and social development of children before they enter primary school –theoretically, from birth to about age 7 or 8.” Such programmes, it adds, “contribute to good child development outcomes that set the foundation for lifelong learning and help in the monitoring of health and nutrition status during this critical period of development.” (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007)

Broadly, ECCE programme can be grouped as follows: a) Home Care programmes cater to children up to age 2 years. The term “care” in this context encompasses “attention to health, hygiene and nutrition within a nurturing and safe environment that supports children’s cognitive and socio-emotional well being.” (UNESCO) b) Early Childhood Education programmes cater to children aged 3 to 6 years. In addition to providing “care,” such programmes include organised learning or early childhood education. It should be noted, however, “education” in the early childhood years is much broader than schooling, capturing learning through early stimulation, guidance and a range of developmental activities and opportunities. In practice, care and education cannot be separated, and good-quality provision for young children necessarily addresses both dimensions. (UNESCO).

Such care can be best given in a familiar and natural environment – the home. However, changes in family structure and increased employment of women have led to the establishment of day care facilities (crèches) for infants and toddlers.

The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) defines pre-primary education under ECCE as ISCED Level 0, compromising programmes that offer structured, purposeful learning activities in a centre (as oppose to the home) to children aged at least 3 years. (UNESCO, 1977) Such programmes are normally held to include organised, experience-based learning activities. In particular, they encourage school readiness through:

• Physical well-being and motor development

• Social and emotional development

• Approaches to learning

• Language development

• Cognition and general knowledge

The Current Situation in Bhutan

No national policy currently exists in Bhutan on ECCE (also known as Early Childhood Care and Development, or ECCD). Pending formulation of this policy, “the Government has allowed some private-sector initiatives through the establishment of nursery schools in the larger urban centres. These schools require the payment of fees and, consequently, are attended mostly by the children of more well-to-do parents” (Education Sector Strategy, 2003).

The above is reflected in the current status of ECCD (also known as ECCE, or Early Childhood Care and Education) in the country:

• Six daycare centres, mostly in Thimphu, Punakha, Paro and Phuentsholing, are providing 2 to 3 years of preschool education for about 200 3- to 5-year-olds. Clearly, the needs of only a very small proportion of young children are being met this way.

• Several issues also exist concerning the daycare programmes, including staff training; state of the centres’ physical environment, including availability of appropriate play and educational equipment; and clarity of curriculum goals. It also appears that all six centres are struggling for financial sustainability.

‘Pre-Primary’: A Distinctive Approach

At the same time, in Bhutan the General Education Curriculum includes one year of preprimary (PP) as well as Classes I to VI. Notwithstanding the designation PP, “pre-primary” in the country is “very much formal schooling,” in contrast to international expectations, it has been found. 2 The Review of Primary Education (Department of Education/UNICEF/SDC) commented that in most PP classes:

The aim of the teachers seems to be to get [the children] onto the readers, formal arithmetic and book work as quickly as possible, so that they will be ready for Class I. The Pre-Primary grade does not function as preschool (as intended) but seems to be already Class I, so that the primary education in Bhutan in fact lasts for seven years.

As such, “PP experiences” are formal school experiences because of the widely held notion that it should prepare children for Class I.

Conclusion

1. Little planning has been done for preschool education and care of Bhutanese children, as shown by the low numbers involved nationwide. This is particularly unfortunate, given that children from households with no literate parents are in greatest need of preschool education.

2. Conceptually, a distinction needs to be made between the ISCED Level 0 concept of “pre-primary education” and the much-misunderstood Bhutanese concept of “PP.” In practice, the latter is intended to prepare children for Class I, whereas broadly, preprimary education under ECCE is intended primarily to promote children’s holistic development.

CHAPTER III: Universal Primary Education

The goals and processes for achieving Bhutan’s aspirations in the education sector are defined in the “Education Sector Strategy: Realising the Vision 2020” (see Box 1). This strategy forms the basics for achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and for achieving the fundamental goal of equity under the Dakar Declaration (see Box 2).

Box 1: Education Sector Strategy: Realising the Vision 2020, Bhutan

The Education Sector Strategy articulates how Bhutan will achieve its long-term vision in the education sector as part of wider national development principles that address the country’s unique needs and priorities for attaining Gross National Happiness. The Vision 2020 document provides the following milestones for the sector:

Universal Primary Enrolment (UPE)

Full enrolment of junior high school (Class VIII)

Full enrolment of high school (Class X)

Full adaptation of secondary school curricula to the Bhutanese context

Student competencies equivalent to average level by international standards

Student competencies equivalent to excellence level by international standards

International standards

Introduction of an operational distance education programme

Full adult literacy

Source: Ministry of Education, 2003

- 2007

- 2007

- 2012

- 2007

- 2010

- 2020

- 2020

- 2007

- 2012

UPE means “that all children of primary-school participate in the school system and complete primary school” (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007). So that all Bhutanese children are becoming “primary graduates” by 2015, this requires: (a) beginning pre-primary (PP) enrolment of all children for the academic session 2009 at the officially prescribed age, i.e., 6 years; and (b) the acquisition of these children of basic skills – reading, writing and numeracy – and their progression from PP to Class VI within a national time frame of 7 years. This further implies that the school system will have the capacity to accommodate entire cohorts of children, as well as to provide a quality education. In other words, for UPE quantitative and qualitative objectives are inseparable.

Achieving Gender Parity

Gender disparity in primary school enrolment is characteristic of many countries with low overall enrolment. Thus, with its Gender Parity Index of 83.9 percent for boys and 83.5 percent for girls (2007), Bhutan’s progress in achieving gender parity in primary education is commendable, reflecting little if any discrimination against girls’ enrolment in school. This is an important factor in achieving UPE; the latter by definition calls for gender parity. At the secondary, there is a decline in girls’ participation, however.