One of the greatest difficulties faced by countries in their efforts to expand and improve the quality of early childhood care and education is the mobilization of resources. This is particularly daunting in developing countries, where early childhood may be overshadowed by other pressing priorities, such as universal primary education.
The 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA), stated that countries should view early childhood as part of basic education. Once countries recognize the positive value of state investment in this area, the next challenge is to mobilize funds. In general, government funding for early childhood is extremely small. For this reason approaching the private sector (non-profit and for-profit) can be an effective strategy. This issue seems to be one that stretches across the world in reference to early childhood education and high quality. Funding of early childhood is challenging when funds are steady being cut. Quality, accessibility and investment are a universal concern.
3 comments:
Wanda:
I agree with your statement that early childhood must focus on all developmental domains. Children cannot succeed academically if they do not have a healthy and safe environment at school or home. They also need to build the social and emotional skills to negotiate classroom interactions.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts,
LouAnn Rhodes
Wanda, I agree that childcare should be seen as an investment and there should be opporuntities for early childhood to be part of basic education
Wanda: It would be so much easier if preschool were a required grade level. THen developing countries would have to figure out their pre-k to 12 grade education system instead of making preschool take the back burner because it is not as important when it comes to funding. LIke ou said in your post, these countries have so much to organize and moving forward that preschool comes last. Great post. I enjoyed reading it very much.
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