Right to Education &
Early Childhood Education
and Development:
Evidence from South Asia
September 16-17, 2014
Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi (Pakistan)
Conference Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements: ............................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction: ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Karachi Consensus Statement: ............................................................................................................................. 6
Key Actions/Recommendations ....................................................................................................................... 7
1.
ECED- Policy and Right To Education (RTE) ..................................................................................... 7
2.
ECED Curriculum and Standards ......................................................................................................... 7
3.
ECED - Teacher Preparation ................................................................................................................. 8
4.
ECED Assessment and Research .......................................................................................................... 9
ECED - Innovations ......................................................................................................................................... 9
Objectives of the Conference: ........................................................................................................................ 10
Expected Outcomes ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Sessions .......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Proceedings: ................................................................................................................................................... 12
Day 1 - Session 1: ECED- Policy and Right to Education (RTE) .............................................................. 12
Day 1 - Session 2: Curriculum and Standards ............................................................................................ 17
Day 1 - Session 3: Teachers Preparation (pre and in-service) .................................................................... 19
Day 2 – Session 1: Research and Assessment ............................................................................................ 22
Day 2 – Session 2: Innovation: Access, Parenting and Materials .............................................................. 26
Day 2 – Session 3: Groups and Group Work Facilitated by Moderators ................................................. 28
Day 2 – Special Contributions shared by eminent presenters from India and Bangladesh ........................... 31
Annex A: Picture Gallery ............................................................................................................................... 34
Annex B: Media Coverage ............................................................................................................................. 37
Annex C: Regional Conference leads the Way Forward: Sindh Govt. Drafts the First-Ever ECE Policy in
Pakistan .......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Annex D: Program of the Regional Conference ............................................................................................ 39
1
Executive Summary
A Regional Conference on “Right to Education and Early Childhood Education and Development:
Evidence from South Asia” was held on September 16-17, 2014 in Karachi with over 200 participants from
Pakistan and representatives from South Asia (India, Nepal and Bangladesh). The conference is embedded in
ASER/RTE strand of ITA’s work where ASER reports on ECE age group 3-5 with policy papers(annex).
The conference was an advocacy event aligned to article 25 A , right to education and emerging global EFA
/SDGs education goals and targets, where ECE/ECED is conceived within a lifelong learning cycle.
Idara-e-Taleem o Aagahi (ITA) and the Right to Education team co-hosted the conference with the
Education and Literacy Department (E&LD) Government of Sindh and the Reform Support Unit( RSU) as
the technical arm of the E&LD. The leadership of the Government of Sindh stood firmly behind this
endeavor; they were not only impeccable hosts but also champions for the cause of Early Childhood Care and
Education in general and Early Childhood Education (ECE) in particular. The Senior Minister for Education
Mr. Nisar Ahmed Khuro, the Additional Chief Secretary Education & Literacy, Dr. Fazal ullah Pechuho and
the Chief Program Manager RSU Mrs. Saba Mahmud hosted the conference substantively, warmly
welcoming all guests from Pakistan and South Asia.
Our friends and partners from the region India, Bangladesh and Nepal provided the regional perspectives.
These included : Asia Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood Education (ARNEC) and Exec Director
Ms. Junko Mayihara who provided technical knowledge at every stage; Dr. Venita Kaul, Director School of
Education,
Centre
for
Early
Childhood
Education
and
Development
(CECED)
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University India; Ms. Purnima Ramanujan – ASER centre India; Dr. Renu SinghCountry Director Young Lives Ms. Sudheshna Sengupta- Mobile Creches- India, Mahmuda Akhter-Exec.
Director, Institute of Child & Human Development (ICHD) & Dr. Shanta Dixit Rato Bangla Foundation
Nepal
E&LD and ITA would like to express special gratitude to all Departments of Education from Balochistan,
Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkua, for their presentations and contributions as well as the Ministry of . Federal
Education and Professional Training, ICT. Experts on ECE, Academia, CSOs, INGOs active in the ECE
space across Pakistan were present throughout the 2 days.
The conference was supported by : “The UK’s” Department for International Development (DFID);
Foundation Open Society Institute - (FOSI); Dubai Cares and Oxfam.
The outcome of the conference is the “ECED Karachi Consensus Statement September 17 2014”
(attached) agreed to by all stakeholders/practitioners. It has 4 thematic areas: policy, curriculum and
assessment, teacher preparation and innovations. The Statement will be extensively disseminated by
many strategic partners across Pakistan and beyond as a reference document in the dialogues up to
2015 and in the post 2015-2030 period. The Government of Sindh E&LD is embarking on a fullfledged ECE Policy as committed to in the Karachi Consensus Statement and in SESP 2014-2018 as is
Balochistan.
In September 2014 ITA’s Director Programs will be at the UN General Assembly and its side meetings
where the ECED Karachi Consensus Statement will be shared widely as it will be in December 2014 at
the ARNEC annual conference to be held in Manila where the CPM – RSU will also be representing the
Government of Sind E&LD.
2
Acknowledgements:
A Regional Conference on “Right to Education and Early Childhood Education and Development: Evidence
from South Asia” would not have been impossible to hold successfully without the collaboration of many
committed partners acknowledged below for their generous support and strong commitment
Idara-e-Taleem o Aagahi (ITA) and the Right to Education team at the outset extends profound gratitude to
the co-hosts of the conference, the Education and Literacy Department (E&LD) Government of Sindh and the
Reform Support Unit( RSU) as the technical arm of the E&LD. The leadership of the Government of Sindh
stood firmly behind this endeavor; they were not only impeccable hosts but also champions for the cause of
Early Childhood Care and Education in general and Early Childhood Education (ECE) in particular. The
Senior Minister for Education Mr. Nisar Ahmed Khuro, the Additional Chief Secretary Education & Literacy,
Dr. Fazal ullah Pechuho and the Chief Program Manager RSU Mrs. Saba Mahmud hosted the conference
substantively, warmly welcoming all guests from Pakistan and South Asia.
Our friends and partners from the region extended solid support to the conference:
Asia Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood Education (ARNEC) and its leader Ms. Junko Mayihara
who provided technical knowledge sharing at every stage; Dr. Venita Kaul, Director School of Education,
Centre
for
Early
Childhood
Education
and
Development
(CECED)
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University India; Ms. Purnima Ramanujan – ASER centre India; Dr. Renu SinghCountry Director Young Lives Ms. Sudheshna Sengupta- Mobile Creches- India, Mahmuda Akhter-Executive
Director, Institute of Child and Human Development (ICHD) and Dr. Shanta Dixit from Rato Bangla
Foundation Nepal
E&LD and ITA would like to express special gratitude to all Departments of Education from Balochistan,
Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkua, for their presentations and contributions as well as the Ministry of . Federal
Education and Professional Training, ICT
Our experts who not only contributed as presenters but as leaders of the conference in shepherding the
conceptualization, reading papers and facilitating the working groups towards the conference consensus
statement. In particular we would like to thank
Dr.Zahid Jatoi- RSU; Dr. Ghazala Rafique, Interim Director Aga Khan University - Human Development
Program; Dr. Bernadette Dean, Director VMIE, Ms. Audrey Juma NDIE, Ms. Ambreena Ahmed Director
TRC; Amima Saiyid; Raana Hussain SESSP Dr. Muhammad Memon, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani Professor in
Education, Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), Mr. Aziz Kabani M.D
Sindh Education Foundation
Civil Society partners INGOs and the media played a very important role in making this conference
successful.
3
We are grateful to our development partners supporting the foundational importance of ECE embedded in
both EFA/MDGs and the post 2015 development agenda. These are:
-
“The UK’s” Department for International Development (DFID)
Foundation Open Society Institute - (FOSI)
Dubai Cares
Oxfam
We finally acknowledge our teams at RSU and ITA/RTE who worked diligently on the program and logistics
of the regional conference; in particular the Chief Program Manager (CPM) RSU Mrs. Saba Mahmud and her
senior managers Mr. Zahid Jatoi, Ms. Sania Khurshid and Mr. Ghulam Nabi along with ITA /RTE teams
viz., Ms. Zaynah Gilani, Ms. Huma Sikander, Ms. Sana Karim, Ms. Farwa Fatima, Ms. Saba Saeed, Mr. Abu
Bakar and Mr. Imtiaz Nizami.
We also want to acknowledge RSU for supporting all logistics as a co-host. They supported the teams when
the originally scheduled conference was disrupted just two days ahead, due to the extreme law and order
situation in Karachi in June 2014; the rescheduled regional conference was held in September 2014.
We are committed to taking the “ECED Karachi Consensus Statement 2014” to many strategic
partners across Pakistan and beyond as a reference document in the dialogues up to 2015 and in the
post 2015-2030 period. The Government of Sindh E&LD is embarking on a full fledged policy for ECE
as committed to in the Karachi Consensus Statement and also in SESP 2014-2018 as is Balochistan.
In September 2014 ITA’s Director Programs will be at the UN General Assembly and its side meetings
where the ECED Karachi Consensus Statement will be shared widely as it will be in December 2014 at
the ARNEC annual conference to be held in Manila where the CPM – RSU will also be representing the
Government of Sind E&LD.
4
Introduction:
Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) have been an area of
immense national, regional and global activism in the run up to 2015 and in the post 2015 development
period. This is amply visible in the enactments under 25 A Right to Education as a fundamental constitutional
right of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as it is under policy initiatives of various South Asian countries, viz.
India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Globally the Muscat Statement (May 2014) and the final document of the Open
Working Group (OWG) with proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In both landmark documents
to be debated at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September 2014 in New York, ECE/ECCE has been
earmarked as a distinct target within the overarching Education goal proposed in the Muscat and SDG
documents. The SDGs overall goal No. 4 on education is phrased as follows:
To Ensure Equitable and inclusive quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030”.
Goal No. 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities
for all” 1
Whilst the Muscat Agreement has earmarked ECCE as its first target, under the SDGs, Education is
proposed as goal No. 4 clearly earmarking ECE as its second target
Targets of ECE in the Muscat Agreement and proposed SDGs
Target 1: By 2030, at least x% of girls and boys are ready for primary school through participation in quality
early childhood care and education, including at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education,
with particular attention to gender equality and the most marginalized.
SDG Target No. 4.2 : By 2030 ensure that all boys and girls have access to quality early childhood
development (ECD), care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education 2
Both sets of document are not only aligned but reinforce the ‘care, linkages and transition’ from preprimary to
primary education of the young embedded in the lifelong learning cycle approach.
In South Asia ECCE/ECE /ECD has become mainstreamed in human resource development to meet not just
the foundational milestone of learning readiness but also its inextricable linkage to support other goals in
health (infant and maternal mortality), nutrition/stunting and parental care. India has already finalized its ECD
Policy in 2012, whilst Bangladesh completed the process in 2013; steps are being taken elsewhere in Asia
and South Asia to provide necessary policy, planning and budgetary attention to early years as a critical pillar
for achieving the right to education. In Pakistan since 2010, under the 18th amendment to the constitution,
article 25 A has made not only education a fundamental right for children aged 5-16, but the ensuing
legislation in the provinces has provisioned for ECE/ECCE to be part of the right to education obligation by
the state. This was affirmed widely at the regional conference as well over the two days from September 1617, 2014 in Karachi.
It is against this backdrop that the Regional Conference on “Right to Education and Early Childhood
Education and Development: Evidence from South Asia” was hosted by a collaboration between Government
and Civil Society institution ; viz. the Education and Literacy Department Government of Sindh and its
technical arm Reform Support Unit(RSU) and the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), its Right to Education
1
2
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/sustainable/owg-proposes-sdgs.html
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1579SDGs%20Proposal.pdf
5
teams ; ITA is also the secretariat for the south Asia Forum for Education Development (SAFED) with
outreach to countries of South Asia and networks in the Asian region. The Asia-Pacific Regional Network for
Early Childhood (ARNEC) collaborated technically with the hosts in Pakistan for the two day regional
conference in Pakistan from September 16-17, 2014.
The Conference met with an overwhelming success with the Karachi Consensus Statement, September
17th, 2014 agreed to by over 200 participants from across Pakistan and the region.
ECED Karachi Consensus Statement Septemeber 17 2014
The Education and Literacy Department (E&LD), Reform Support Unit (RSU) Government of Sindh
Pakistan, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) and the South Asia Forum for Education Development (SAFED) in
collaboration with its development partners (Foundation Open Society Institute –FOSI, Pakistan; Dubai
Cares; “The UK’s” Department for International Development (DFID) and Oxfam ) convened the regional
conference on the Right to Education & Early Childhood Education and Development; Foundation for
Quality Learning-Evidence from South Asia- in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan from September 16-17, 2014. The
conference was attended by 200 senior government officers from across Pakistan, practitioners, policy
makers, academics, civil society organizations and development partners from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India,
and Nepal
Recognizing, ECE/ECCE/ECED3 as a comprehensive learning and multi-sectoral agenda for all children (0-8
years) within diverse contexts and multiple models of ECED in South Asia,
Acknowledging, its uneven presence in RTE laws, budgets and policies, the, ECED Karachi Consensus
Statement September 17, 2014 covers 09 key principles, 48 recommendations and actions for five key
thematic areas that must be considered by each South Asian government, stakeholders, and the UN General
Assembly (UNGA)’s 69thSession- September 16 to 26, 2014 to improve the capabilities of young children,
reduce inequalities, and promote inclusive social and economic development in South Asia.
There are Nine Proposed Guiding Principles for the ECED Karachi Consensus Statement:
1. ECED be envisaged as an integrated approach to facilitate the holistic development of children aged 08 through health, nutrition, education, care and community support.
2. Universal coverage of ECED founded on a rights based approach
3. Embedded in equity and inclusion
4. Customized to national and sub-national contexts responsive to diversity and gender
5. Encourage and test models of ECED in South Asia for effectiveness and scalability
6. Backed by innovative approaches and innovative financing
7. Monitored by robust data for accountability and evidence
8. Supported by partnerships with public, private sector, academia and civil society
9. Linkages of ECED with all SDGs be pursued for bundled approaches and optimum gains
3
Early Childhood Education (ECE) is restricted to learning readiness for 3-5/8. whilst Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and Early
Childhood Education Development (ECED) are terminologies covering 0-8 age group comprehensively.
6
Key Actions/Recommendations
Key Actions/Recommendations (42) for the five thematic areas are
1. ECED- Policy and Right to Education (RTE)
1.1.
Amendments to the RTE laws be made to include the ECED age group
1.2.
A specialized cadre of teachers/care givers must be created with appropriate pay scales and
qualifications specified
1.3.
A common policy inclusive of fundamental principles of ECED to be developed for age group 0-8
or 3-8 according to developmentally appropriate practices
1.4.
For holistic integrated ECED, inter-sectorial government coordination must be ensured
1.5.
Budget for education must be enhanced to 4-6% of GDP ensuring consistent ECED allocation
through schools, institutional and community based programs
1.6.
Mother tongue must be encouraged for ECED age groups where appropriate with second/third
languages support through appropriate content and trained personnel
1.7.
Adequate attention to marginalized/disadvantaged groups (living in extreme poverty, remote areas,
minorities and indigenous communities, children with disabilities, children in conflicts,
displacement and disaster situations, etc).
1.8.
A comprehensive communication strategy be developed to reach all stakeholders
1.9.
Under the proposed EFA target No. 1 (Muscat Agreement), “at least one year of free and
compulsory pre-primary education” must be changed from “ at least one year to one to five years”
as many countries already practicing an expanded ECED program
1.10. For the proposed OWG/SDGs Goal No. 4, target 4.2 on ECED must be shifted as target 4.1 for
sequence, progression and linkage with primary and secondary education
1.11. Monitoring and evaluation of ECCD policy, programs and models must be based on clear
definitions, standards, indicators and measures for quality programming, accreditation and
implementation regulated by public and private representatives.
1.12. Public funding for ECED must support economic constraints of marginalized groups through social
safety nets
1.13. Form a South Asian ECED network – of thinkers, practitioners and activists linked to other regional
and global networks
2. ECED Curriculum and Standards
2.1.
The ECE and Primary Curriculum be reviewed for systemic linkages, ensuring it is
developmentally appropriate, contextually relevant and culturally sensitive.
7
2.2.
Determine quality standards such as child/teacher ratio, number of hours of care/ schooling for
different age groups, curriculum standards and benchmarks at ages 3, 8 and 10 for all broad
domains: cognitive; socio-emotional; moral/spiritual and physical as well as parenting and
community involvement, teaching/ learning approaches, care and coordination among multiple
actors/departments.
2.3.
Holistic learning and development, outcome standards (e.g. early learning and development
outcome standards, EAP-ECD Scales) must be contextualized and aligned with existing policies
and curricular standards and benchmarks.
2.4.
Remedial decentralized support be extended where standards are not met
2.5.
A variety of developmentally appropriate teaching/learning materials based on from the learning
outcomes related to all domains should be ensured in all ECED centres.
2.6.
Ensure timely dissemination and access of curriculum, resource guides and teaching learning
materials in relevant languages to stakeholders (teachers, head teachers, parents, care givers,
education and monitoring institutions)
2.7.
A review after every 3 years of the ECE/ECED curriculum to be conducted based on research
evidence.
3. ECED - Teacher Preparation
3.1.
All pre service and in service teachers/care giver education programs should prepare
teachers to meet the ECED Curriculum and Care standards
3.2.
Only qualified teachers (2 years and/or ideally 4 years of professional development- through flexi
programs following higher secondary education Gr XII), care givers and heads having
qualifications in ECED should be appointed.
3.3.
A separate cadre and career ladder with specific qualification for ECED teachers and care givers
be developed within the public services framework with minimum pay scales for providers from
all sectors (public and private)
3.4.
A Teacher-Education curriculum be designed for ECED teachers and care givers which prepares
them to meet the professional development standards.
3.5.
ECED Centres and Classrooms should have minimum learning materials, safe standards and be
provided with recurring budgets for meeting continuous needs.
3.6.
A monitoring and mentoring mechanism for ECED teachers be developed to ensure curriculum
standards are being met and professional support is present.
3.7.
Career promotions of ECED teachers/caregivers be based on qualifications and performance
reviews
3.8.
A portal must be developed to share best practices/ teaching and learning materials from the region
for caregivers/ parents/ ECED teachers with maximum e -access; CDs, Television, mobile phones
etc.
8
4. ECED Assessment and Research
4.1.
Integrated, multi-disciplinary research on ECED should be encouraged to demonstrate links with
multiple sectors and effects on individuals, the community and society in all sectors and economic
growth.
4.2.
Competencies given in the National curricula to be used as the framework for research on learning
and assessment benchmarked for different age groups.
4.3.
Relevant, valid and reliable data, especially for vulnerable groups must be generated with greater
harmony among data from different sectors and/or organizations.
4.4.
Clear, standardized, age-appropriate outcome indicators and measures along with relevant
assessment tools and mechanisms must be developed to address all ECED domains (as mentioned
above).
4.5.
Assessment frameworks must be formative and not labelling and stigmatizing undertaken
throughout the year, through child-centered approaches such as checklists, observations, anecdotal
records and portfolios.
4.6.
ECED assessment and research forums and networking to be encouraged in each country and
across the region.
4.7.
Budgets to be ensured for assessment and research (action/longitudinal studies).
4.8.
All research and assessment findings must be disseminated to stakeholders to inform policy and
practice.
ECED - Innovations
5.1.
Current and emerging research on brain development, learning, care, parenting, mother tongue,
multi-grade teaching and ICTs should be utilized to develop Innovative pedagogies for incubation,
evidence and up scaling ECED models.
5.2.
Innovations must be encouraged in holistic development, learning outcomes and assessment to
nurture non-cognitive skills, global citizenship and lifelong learning.
5.3.
A paradigm shift is needed for learning in ECED classrooms through meaningful human and
materials interactions, away from text based approaches
5.4.
Basic needs of the child; nutrition, care, rest, play, cleanliness and active learning are of prime
consideration as are innovative schedules for daily activities.
5.5.
Learning pedagogy from ECCE/ECED transitions up to primary and not vice-versa.
5.6.
Innovations in service delivery must be introduced to reach the most marginalized groups and
communities as specified in 1.7
5.7.
Mitigate resources for extra teachers required in supervising achievement of developmental
milestones, by soliciting help of family and community members.
5.8.
Allow for the development of innovative models of ECCE/ECED as per the requirements and
resources of local communities and not one size fits all approach
9
5.9.
Innovative financing models must be devised and promoted to ensure greater access and effective
programming for ECED through inter-departmental and public private partnerships, matching
grant models, community financing and subsidies.
5.10.
Establishing and/or expanding new and existing portals and development forums for learning and
sharing ECED innovations in South Asia and other regions globally.
5.11.
Undertaking field visits to successful ECCE programs for spreading innovations.
5.12.
Commission research on innovations and share through
workshops/documentation to disseminate good practices and to learning.
seminars/conferences,
The above statement was the outcome of the proceedings of two days of intensive sharing of experiences by
countries and provinces in Pakistan and of best practices of CSOs /INGOs. The statement is bold in
suggesting actions for shifting the minimum threshold for ECCE/ECD from age 5 to 3, with special cadre of
trained ECED Personnel and many other suggestions for resources committed to research and development.
The Karachi Consensus Statement requires that each country and province/state/area to develop a logical
series of policy and action steps to implement various thematic areas of focus as practical measureable outputs
and outcomes relevant to specific contexts.
The report of the Regional Conference covers the objectives; session brief summaries, working groups and
group leaders, s photographs, and media coverage
Objectives of the Conference:
The main purpose of this conference was to upgrade the ECE/ECED profile in education initiatives - policy,
standards, teacher education and training and, implementation integral to the right to education (RTE)
movement encompassed in Article 25-A of the constitution in Pakistan and all South Asian countries.
To bring together a range of diverse stakeholders from the country and the region to debate and propose
holistic and coherent solutions for ECE /ECCE program implementation
To underscore the critical positioning of ECE/ECED as a cross cutting multi-sectoral goal to meet multiple
indicators in the Post 2015 Development Agenda (Child /Maternal Health/Nutrition/Poverty etc).
To mobilize regional collaboration and create a South Asian/Asia Pacific Learning and Research Platform for
ECE/ECED supported by ARNEC, CECED, SAFED, PLAN, UNICEF, UNESCO, OSF and other
organizations to enable cooperation for ECED,ECD/ECE across borders.
10
Expected Outcomes of the Regional Conference
Expected outcomes: Help participants to:
 Improve understanding of ECE/ECED as a comprehensive learning and development agenda
 Share national and regional best practices in this sub-sector with respect to curriculum, assessment teacher
preparation and implementation arrangements
 Explore policy and institutional arrangements for ECED at provincial, national and regional levels
 Learn from and network with the best practitioners, leaders, experts and policy makers
 Agree on a comprehensive ECED Karachi Consensus Statement for the conference
Sessions
The inaugural session was moderated by Dr. Bernadette Dean, Director, Valy Muhammad Institute for
Education (VMIE). The Chief Guest was Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Senior Minister for Education, Government
of Sindh and Dr. Fazalullah Pechuho, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), E&LD, Government of Sindh was
the special guest Dr. Ghazala Rafique, presented the keynote address followed by Baela Raza Jamil on post
2015 implications. Ms. Saba Mahmood, Chief Program Manager, RSU, E&LD, Government of Sindh
welcomed the honorable guests sharing the bold steps taken by the Govt. of Sindh for ECE in its recently
approved Education Sector Plan supported by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), World Bank,
European Union and other supporters.
The Chief Guest for the Closing session was Dr. Fazalullah Pechuho, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS),
E&LD, and Government of Sindh. The session was also addressed by Mr. Saeed ul Hassan, Nargis Sultana
OSF and Ms. Saba Mahmood, Chief Program Manager, RSU thanked all participants for their active
engagement throughtout the two days. The closing session shared the Karachi Consensus Statement which
was accepted in principle subject to some corrections and bolder terminology demonstrating the commitment
of the government to ECCE as a fundamental bedrock of learning and human development
The program was designed to cover themes across two days in the following areas:
Day 1:
1. Inaugural
2. Policy and Right to Education (RTE) Status of Early Childhood Education
3. Curriculum and Standards
4. Teacher Preparation (Pre-In Service)
5. Formation of Groups
11
Day 2:
1. Research and Assessment
2. Innovations: Access, Parenting and Materials
3. Group Work
4. Concluding Session
The short synopsis of each presenter is shared below according to the sessions in which they
participated.
Proceedings:
Day 1
Day 1 - Session 1: ECED- Policy and Right to Education (RTE)
The session was inaugurated by Mr. Nisar Ahmed Khurro-Senior Education Minister, Education and
Literacy Department (Govt. of Sindh)
Dr. Ghazala Rafique-Interim Director Aga Khan University: Human Development Program and Asia Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC)
Dr. Rafique presented on issue: ‘ECE in Pakistan-Progress, Challenges and Prospects’. She commenced by
saying that ECE is the missing link in achieving the desired results, she borrowed some scientific facts and
figures to support her argument. She spoke about physical health and nutrition; mental health and
development; early relationships; responsive care as a mediator for the effects of biological and social risks
such as prematurity and poverty and finally, social and emotional development as a strong link to success in
school (and beyond). She incorporated neurology and brain functions and networks as part of her presentation
to effectively convey her point for the need to emphasize on ECED. She maintained that early experiences
shape the brain’s architecture with neural synapses are the highest at the age of 6 thereby, the need to
emphasis on education and learning of children during this age period is essential. Moreover, research has
demonstrated that return to investment in human development is the highest in the early years of a child
thereby, making ECED a pertinent and determinable aspect of education and, learning and development.
Furthermore, 200 million children, under 5yrs of age in developing countries are not meeting their
development potential due to absolute poverty and stunting (malnutrition),Pakistan accounts for 8 million of
these children (Grantham-McGregor S et al (2006), Lancet, 369: 60). The cost of malnutrition to the country
is Rs 200 billion every year (equivalent of more than 5% of GNP) leading to lost lives, disability and
productivity.
12
Dr. Rafique referenced the 2011 Lancet series on Child Development focusing on risk factors for
developmental inequality and program effectiveness. She presented evidence for the case of Pakistan and
argued that progress in reducing out of school children has slowed whereas, wide inequalities in education are
likely to persist in 2015 as well. The 18th amendment and the inclusion of the Right to Education article 25-A
in the constitution is a reason for hope. However, she undercored the challenges faced by ECE in Pakistan
ranging from gender and economic challenges, conflicts, dropout ratio and low enrolment issues. The ASER
Report 2013 shows a declining trend in the quality of primary school education. She emphasized that there
still remains the lack of realization and awareness about the benefits of ECE, negligence and lack of political
will, low financial public sector investment, lack of comprehensive ECE policies (or policy frameworks) and
a dearth of data and rigorous research studies on educational issues particularly ECE. Other policy failures
included lack of training and qualified teachers, lack of capacity building, poor quality and access and,
coordination problems. She concluded with opportunities and prospects of ECE and the multi-stakeholder
partnerships for ECE in Pakistan.
Baela Raza Jamil – Coordinator SAFED/ Director Programs ITA
Baela Raza presented on "Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC’s) Engagement on
ECED in the Post 2015 Development Agenda”. She commenced by giving a brief introduction to ARNEC as
an extensive and fast growing ECD network covering 47 countries aimed at creating a stronger and more
dynamic ECD community by equipping its members with updated knowledge to help them become effective
advocates for holistic and inclusive ECD policy and programs. She said that ARNEC’s plan of action is
centered on the principles of knowledge generation, advocacy for policy change, information management
and dissemination, capacity building and partnership building. She like others, emphasized on the need to
invest on ECD which forms a crucial component of the mental and physical development and higher cognitive
functions of a child. Baela Jamil said that as the MDGs are drawing to a close it has become absolutely
essential to now actively engage in the post-2015 Development Goals at all levels. She added that the Post
2015 should aim at building a strong link between child survival and child development, investing early to
yield greater returns and prioritize the most marginalized. She emphasized that close alignment between
Education for All (EFA)/Muscat Agreement and Open Working Group (OWG) goals/targets giving
ECE/ECCE a good space. The key message conveyed from the discussion was that ECCE should be regarded
more comprehensively in a more holistic manner with emphasis on equity and quality. This includes school
readiness in terms of its cognitive, socio-economic, health and linguistic development. Most importantly,
ECCE should not be considered as a mere extension of primary education but a continuum from pre-natal and
transition to primary school. Moreover, ECCE should have distributive targets to reach out to different social
groups who are vulnerable with close monitoring and support regimes.
She proposed that there should be targeted training for quality assurance. Moreover, emphasis needs to be laid
on the demand side of ECCE as well, it should be mandatory on the parents along with the state to provide
ECCE also, it should be looked in light of other Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets as well. She
proclaimed that on a positive note, progress has been made in the ECCD policy framework, its access and
understanding and the quality imperative. Moreover, steps have been taken towards the development of
comprehensive standards, regulations and guidelines, training and capacity building linked to ECCD
programs. However, despite the progress ECCD is still marred by various challenges and obstacles. She
further added that ARNEC aims to build an effective and efficient collaborative learning space to promote a
holistic and inclusive ECD approach through extensive national level participation. It proposes to achieve this
by innovations in financing and partnerships, innovations in service delivery to reach the most marginalised,
innovative pedagogies and innovations in promoting holistic development and learning outcomes.
13
Muhammad Irfan Khan Jadoon-Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional
Training, ICT
Mr Jadoon presented on the ‘Federal Policy Position Post Scenario Article-25A’. He commenced by briefly
going over the Right to Education Laws already in place in Pakistan. He added the Article 26 of “Universal
Declaration of Human Rights” in his presentation, which entitles everyone to provision of free and
compulsory elementary education and the accessibility and availability of technical, professional and higher
education to all purely on merit basis, as the starting note of his speech. Moving on, he discussed the EFA 6
goals for the year 2015. They are: ECCE: Expanding early childhood care and education; UPE: Universal
primary education; free and compulsory primary education for all; Continuing Education: Learning and life
skills programs for young and adults; literacy: 50% increase in literacy rates; gender: Eliminating gender
disparities in primary and secondary by 2005, and gender equality in education by 2015; quality: improving
quality of education. He collated the goal 2, 3 and 4 of the MDGs with the EFA goals to stress on the need to
effectively execute the education policies in Pakistan as per its membership of various global agendas.
Furthermore, he elaborated upon the implementation of Article 25-A.
He disclosed that the Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) Program of Federal Government has
aimed at educating the millions of Out-Of-School-Children (OOSC) who are deprived of this fundamental
right. BECS programs is the best option due to its mandate, design, Non-Formal Education, and its offices and
schools country-wide, to make accelerated efforts to achieve the UPE/ MDG targets by educating Out-ofSchool-Children and increasing the literacy rate. He shared the provincial status of the progress under the
BECS. Mr. Jadoon discussed the NCHD program; it is another Federal Government program which aims at
educating the millions of Out-Of-School-Children (OOSC) who are deprived of this fundamental right. Figure
17 shows the details of the NCHD Feeder Schools. Additionally, he mentioned the 3 aspects of the Policy
Action on ECE in the Education Policy 2009 namely, improvements in ECE quality-2 year training for ECE
teachers, one year pre-primary education/universal access in 10 years (3-5 year) and ECE attached to primary
schools. The promised policy provision from 1998-2010 were also discussed in the presentation which
included the recognition and strengthening of Katchi class as part of formal system and opening of
Katchi/ECE classes in the public sector primary schools, training and recruitment of full-time teachers for
katchi class/pre-primary education. Along with, curricula development for ECE and coordination for
development of teaching-learning materials and free provision of activity-based textbook (Qaaida) and other
learning material for pre-primary education.
After the insertion of Article-25 A the role of the state is clear; but ECE is faced by many challenges. There is
a dire need for adapting the curriculum and classroom sources for meeting the diverse needs of 3-5 year old
children and there is an immense need for developing deeper understanding of “how learning takes place”.
Moreover, adequate provincial financial allocation is required for ECE and its learning practices to avoid
mechanistic implementation of the ECE curriculum(2007); there should be a social and public accountability
over health, social welfare initiatives and a compelling need for women’s welfare and education ministries to
align their targets and mechanisms. The post Article 25-A scenario is marked by a lack of awareness
14
regarding the importance of ECE and programs, insufficient financial resources, lack of networking and
coordination among agencies and institutions implementing and developing ECE programs. There is
inadequate sharing of experiences in the NGO/private sector which are restricted in scope and scale.
Moreover, emphasis needs to be laid on the lack of capacity in the public sector, poor quality and nonavailability of appropriate and adequate learning material, lack of integrated programming for ECD, non
availability of database, inadequate teachers training Program for ECE.
Balochistan: Dr. Kamal ud Din-Deputy Focal Person Capacity building and Specialist ECED, DoE
Balochistan
Dr. Kamal presented on ‘Policy and Right to Education (RTE): Status on Early Childhood Education in
Balochistan’. He gave a prelude to the education system and ECE in Pakistan along with their policy
framework. He spoke over the significance of ECE and the criticality and advantages of ECE along with the
efficacy of ECE in improving access especially for the most disadvantaged. Evidence from around the world
suggests that the most disadvantaged children whether because of poverty, ethnicity, gender, rural isolation or
disability, experience the most dramatic gains from ECE. He gave examples of the India village pre-school
study, Early Childhood Care and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, Peru and Nepal. There has been a modest
increase in access of ECCE in Balochistan but there is an urgency in all 4 provinces to invest in the learning
capabilities of school going children in early years as there is a need to support schools with ECE facilities; in
Balochistan, only 5 % of the schools are equipped with ECE facilities. He shared the targets set under the
Balochistan Education Sector Plan (BESP) and budget allocation to ECE related schemes in Balochisan
respectively. Furthermore, the proposed assessment methods for ECE incorporated classroom level
assessment, health and parental evaluation along with system diagnosis. He also shared various legislative,
policy and other reforms on education, teacher training and ECE.
He concluded his presentation by giving an outline of measures to take ECED forward; it included expansion
of ECE to all schools in Balochistan, the alignment of CPD and pre-Service trainings with the concept of
ECE, availability of teaching-learning materials (TLMs) especially for ECE and primary level to make the
teaching-learning processes more attractive. Beside construction design of the schools needs to be reviewed
and aligned with the needs of the child and finally but most importantly approval and implementation of ECE
policy frame work by the Balochistan Cabinet.
Punjab: Mr. Muhammad Shahid Saleem-Deputy Director (Planning), Directorate of Staff
Development
Mr. Saleem presented on the “Status of teachers training on ECE” and iterated that investment in ECE is a
commitment to prosperous & bright future and hence, absolutely necessary. He briefly outlined the policy and
sector plans for ECE in Pakistan including the National Education Policy (NEP) 2009, National Plan of
Action for EFA 2002-15, devolution of education after the 18th Amendment (2010) and the Punjab School
Education Sector Plan (PSEP) 2013-17. He explained that the key strategies in Punjab for ECE as an area of
focus include the institutionalization of ECE through development and notification of a policy, dissemination
of awareness and training of education managers, head teachers and teachers on ECE and, preparation of
15
plans and implementation expansion of ECE programs to 5000 primary schools every year. He explained the
‘Scaling Up Strategy’ for ECE in Punjab (2011-2021) in relative detail which basically, aims to ensure the
establishment of ECE resource centers in every public school with the following components: improvement of
class room environment (development of ECE room), provision of learning resource material, integration of
ECE teacher training in on-going training programs and community involvement and advocacy campaign.
Furthermore, he elaborated upon the steps taken by the Directorate of Staff Development (DSD) in Punjab for
the establishment of an ECE Resource Centre at DSD Campus in Lahore, 4 ECE centers in schools in the
vicinity of DSD with the support of UNICEF & UNESCO), ECE rooms in every Lab School attached with
GCET (Total 33), 17 ECE Rooms in Flood hit areas (M.Garh, D.G. Khan and Rajanpur Districts), Developed
Phased Strategy to upscale ECE in Public Schools. Moreover, attempts have been made at the development of
Teacher’s Guide on Early Childhood Education and Training manual, training of 132 master trainers and 4000
teachers on ECE techniques in 2011, ECE is the part of each training conducted at DSD and in the field and
in pre-service at GCETs-B.Ed (ECE) Program.
Besides, he also acquainted the participants with the provision of ECE components of learning environment,
provision of resource material and trained ECE teachers/ caregivers to over 1000 public schools all over
Punjab. He also told the participants that the government of Punjab has undertaken a project to provide a child
friendly learning environment through ECE in public sector schools. It includes specialized training of Master
Trainers, teachers, Head Teachers and care givers along with the orientation of members of school councils
and education managers. He concluded his presentation by giving in to some of the challenges faced by ECE
in Punjab some of which were a high drop-out rate between ECE grade to Grade 1, insufficient trained
personnel to fully embrace ECE as a holistic program, lack of trained teachers with pre-service qualifications,
few institutions in place for ECE pre-service and Limited resources to expand ECE in about 50,000 Schools in
Punjab. In the end he also shared some of the ECE material for quality learning with the guests.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Abid Ullah Kaka Khel-Director Education Sector Reform Unit (ESRU) /Deputy
Secretary Education, Elementary and Secondary Education KP
His presentation was on ‘Early Childhood Education-KP’s Status’. Mr. Kaka Khel used ASER 2011-13 to
illustrate student enrolment in public and private schools in Pakistan. He added that the lack of awareness
about the importance and benefits of Early Childhood Education, account for the low demand for services,
constrained supply, with few pre-school facilities available in existing primary schools, lack of fiscal space in
education budget to finance development of specialist facilities and llimited discussion to date of this issue
among government departments and partners barricading the development of ECE in KPK.
The Director ESRU said that as far as the provincial legal framework is concerned the constitutional
amendment does not therefore explicitly address Early Childhood Education although a draft bill on the right
to education in KPK exists, including provision for Early Childhood Education. He revealed that the KPK
Government is currently consulting with international and provincial stakeholders. On the issue of future
prospects and undertakings on ECE policy, Mr Kaka Khel revealed that the Elementary & Secondary
Education Department is producing a new sector plan to 2019/20 during the second half of 2014.
16
The new plan will include policy, a clear approach to phasing in Early Childhood Education, and an indicative
resource envelope for this work. Lastly, the approach will build on pilot work taking place in KPK with
financial support from Australia and technical delivery through Save the Children program. Moreover, the
government is also working with 400 schools in Abbottabad, Battagram, Buner and Peshawar districts over
three years, using Australian funding and technical delivery mechanisms through Save the Children. This
work will be rolled out, subject to available fiscal space and promising outcomes in pilot districts. Lastly,
construction of 500 new ECE rooms in primary schools is in pipeline with 6 rooms Primary schools instead of
two rooms.
Sindh: Saba Mehmood- Chief Program Manager , Reform Support Unit, Education & Literacy
Department (E&LD), Government of Sindh
Saba Mehmood added concluding remarks to the session. She outlined the numerous reasons for the need to
focus on the ECE in Sindh alongside, she also mentioned the measures undertaken by the provincial
government to remove the obstacles in way of endorsing ECE in the province. ECE prioritizes policy and
advocacy with emphasis on curriculum and learning, education standardization and parent –community
involvement in learning. She spoke over the appraisal and uplift of the education system in Sindh under the
ECE goals. She also mentioned the recent collaboration between Reform Support unit (RSU) and the EU
regarding the curriculum implementation strategy. RSU is working on curriculum relevance and development
and also, some work is being done on teacher development in CIF as well. The main idea she stressed, is to
work towards the development of CIF and then work towards ECE with the ultimate goal of provision of free,
nondiscriminatory and quality education to all.
Day 1 - Session 2: Curriculum and Standards
Ms. Ambreena Ahmed-Assistant Director, Teacher Resource Center Ahmed
Ms. Ahmed presented on the “TRC story of the National ECE Curriculum 2002 - 2007”, the timeline and the
role of TRC. She said that first ECE was a result of a PPP in 2002 and spoke about the inspiration behind
TRC. She said that that one of the objectives of TRC was ECE giving a background of how ECE worked and
its activities which included teacher training program. Teacher Absenteeism and unused school funds were
targeted as being the major reasons for policy implementation failure in the ECED. TRC worked upon the
development of curriculum and activities in ECE since the market was untapped and there was still room for
growth and; as far as the policy making was concerned it was fairly easy but the implementation was difficult
and lacked effective monitoring and evaluation. However, TRC continues pushing for ECE and activity-based
learning in the government schools. Lastly, she thanked and acknowledged the partners and participants for
their concern for such an important yet, neglected aspect of the education sector.
17
Ms. Nargis Sultana-Senior Education Advisor Open Society Foundations (OSF)
Ms. Sultana presented on ‘Critical Thinking in Early Development’ and the need to infuse rational and critical
thinking skills in children from a young age to develop their comprehension and decision making skills. She
added that bad hygiene and malnutrition along with improper access to food and health facilities have had a
bad impact on a child’s development and ECE should be linked to nutrition and health development with
regards to education. In Pakistan she said, international models from different regions have been replicated
like the work with TCF though, their focus on primary and secondary level and ECED remains largely
untapped.
She reiterated that rote learning is unfortunately, a permanent feature of the education system in Pakistan but
it needs to be worked on and eradicated. Thus, there is a need for this program to be implemented in both
public and private schools that is one reason the recent collaboration of OSF with the TRC as it has started
working on ECE as well. She further mentioned that there is a strong link between critical thinking and ECE
and, this is being currently piloted in one school which if successful, can later be replicated on a larger scale.
Furthermore, she stressed on institutional capacity building and development; teacher training institutes, text
book boards and curriculum development as essentials to providing a strong foundation to education in
Pakistan. Finally, she said that improvement in learning outcomes is being observed now as a result of such
programs and working together can bring a marked difference; collaboration however, is important to avoid
replication of efforts.
Abrar Shahwani-Project Coordinator, Save the Children
Mr. Shahwani presented a paper on ‘Assessments and Research around the Literacy Boost Program under the
Balochistan Education Program (BEP)’, which has been implemented in 3 districts in Balochistan. The
program has a defined agenda; to increase access, to improve quality, to disseminate health and nutrition
awareness and to support the planning and budgeting for the education programs in the province. He said that
the issues and obstacles faced by Balochistan are different in nature as compared to the other provinces. The
BEP programs are capacity building programs incorporating a lot of other programs like ECE and are well
suited to the perils faced by the education sector in Balochistan.
He took the opportunity to acquaint the participants with the Literacy Boost program, which is an innovative
and evidence-based initiative taken by Save the Children to support reading skills development in young
children, he said. The Literacy Boost program aims to target the physical, cognitive, linguistic, emotional and
social construction and development of children. Its teaching methodologies he added, are based on a children
centered approach that focuses on promoting creative writing and analytical thinking for learners rather than
rote learning with a particular focus on capacity building. The program he explained, takes a 3-pronged
approach to assess and enhance the reading levels and reading comprehension of children and to conduct
evidence-based policy dialogue on the Mother Tongue as the medium of instruction. They do this by focusing
on assessment, teacher training and community action. The outcomes of the Literacy Boost program are
illustrated in figures1 and 2. Mr Shahwani concluded by introducing the participants with another project
being undertaken by Save the Children, Numeracy Boost which basically takes the same 3-pronged approach
to strengthen the basic Math skills of early grade students (focus on Grade 2).
18
Qasim Muhammad - Senior Program Manager, PEPAS, Battagram, Save the Children
Mr Qasim Muhammad presented his paper titled ‘Synergies of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
projects with ECCE National Curriculum and Early Learning Disabilities (ELD(s))’. He emphasized on
improved educational access and outcomes for young children (3-8 years) by increasing their learning and
development opportunities, and by improving transitions into primary school. He further emphasized on a
gender indiscriminate and better access to quality education, literacy and numeracy skills for children,
especially girls and vulnerable children. Besides, he was also of the view that increased opportunities for the
completion of Basic Education, and improved transitions from primary to middle, and middle to secondary
school could be a milestone in overcoming the shortfalls in the education system in Pakistan especially, the
ECE which forms the foundational edifice for higher education and child development at all stages. He
briefly mentioned the ‘Education Strategic Theme Objectives 2014-15’ in which he pointed out their agenda
of improved health and nutrition status of children through school health and nutrition services. It also
included improved livelihood skills leading to increased income generation and, better access to basic quality
education in a safe learning environment to the (children) victims of natural disasters. He also acquainted the
participants with the different projects undertaken by ‘Save the Children’ organization, its work on ECE and
curriculum development and a brief overview of their involvement in Pakistan. He highlighted the
implementation of the curriculum in KPK and presented results further adding that advocacy of the results
brought the provincial government and the organization on the same page. He also, briefly went through the
key learning areas and key competencies of the ECCE framework of National Curriculum for Early
Childhood Education (NCECE) & ELDs. He also, discussed in considerable detail the ECCE Framework; its
learning environment, the learning process, the teachers’ training cycle, assessments, parental involvement,
child friendly policies, good governance and institutionalization.
Idrees Jatoi-Deputy Director, Bureau of Curricula (BoC) and Extension wing Jamshoro (GoSindh)
Mr. Jatoi highlighted the role of BOC for the implementation of ECE in Sindh and, further discussed the
details of the program. He stressed on a wider dissemination and outreach of ECE. He also, pointed out
towards the need to align the ECE curriculum with the Teacher Development Curriculum to ensure the
relative training and expertise of the teachers to aid better and comprehensive learning among the infants
which is crucial to the effective enactment of Article 25-A. Moreover, he mentioned that a number of groups
have been created by the name of Thematic Working Groups (TWGs)for suggestions and advisory regarding
ECE and that the discussions in these TWGs have presented a number of useful and feasible
recommendations. The terms of reference of the aforementioned program were discussed in the address.
Different paths and policy strategies for moving forward were also proposed during the presentation.
Day 1 - Session 3: Teachers Preparation (pre and in-service)
Bernadette Dean- Director, VM Institute for Education (VMIE)
Dr. Bernadette Dean presented her keynote address on ‘Evolving Innovations: Developing Quality
Professionals for the Early Years’. She talked about globalization, communication technology and child
psychology and how they can be used to formulate a holistic and directed policy towards embedding strong
19
foundations through ECE. She also, highlighted that their role is not only the education of a child but to aid
his/her overall personal development and capacity building. She also stressed on the need to improvise and
revolutionize education and the teaching models according to the modern day needs.
She talked about the required 8Cs in the 21st century education and the need for a reflective and challenging
learning environment to train the children for the practical world. Moreover, she pointed towards the need to
inculcate critical-thinking skills and technological adaptability among the children meanwhile, discouraging
rote learning. She concluded that, there is a need to reorient teacher training to prepare early childhood
educators on children specific tools and methods and henceforth, their efficient deployment. She also talked
about the introduction of VMIE teacher education model by incentivizing them and developing a
family/community education program. She proposed a re-conceptualization of ECED from 0-10 years of age.
Nepal: Shanta Dixit-Director and Co-Founder of the Rato Bangla School, Nepal
Shanta Dixit talked about Nepal’s commitment to Child Rights and Education and the government’s Early
Childhood development (ECD) related plans and policies in their core planning and development instruments
like in the Education for All National Plan of Action (EFA/NPA-2001-2015) and the Five Year development
plans and numerous others. She shared details about the Ratu Bangla Foundation and its achievements.
Moreover, she spoke over the infrastructural inefficacies, classroom mismanagement and discrepancies in the
transition from teacher training to classroom implementation where children’s inquisitiveness is suppressed.
She highlighted that children inquisitiveness and curiosity should be nurtured as it leads to a healthy growth
and development of critical thinking skills which are absolutely essential for a well grounded mental and
cognitive development.
Qamar Shahid-Director General Provincial Institute for Teacher’s Education (PITE), Teacher
Education
Group
Mr. Shahid presented on the topic, “Teacher Preparation for ECE in Sindh”. He spoke over the Sindh Right
of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2013 and the SESP 2014-18. These acts highlight the lack
of concerted efforts by the Government of Pakistan to promote ECE (SESP, pg 82), lack of ‘teacher
development and/or deployment strategy, nor an ECE-specific cadre of teachers’ (SESP, 87). The National
Education Policy (NEP) 2009 holds that ‘improvements in quality of ECE shall be based on a concept of
holistic development of the child that provides a stimulating and interactive environment, including play,
rather than a focus on regimes that require rote learning and rigid achievement standards’ (NEP 2009, p. 35).
Moreover, he highlighted that there is a consensus among all stakeholders that the quality of teachers in the
public sector is unsatisfactory. Poor quality of teacher in the system in large numbers is owed to the mutations
in governance, an obsolete pre-service training structure and a less than adequate in service training regime.
Presence of incompetence in such a huge quantity and permeation of malpractices in the profession have
eroded the once exalted position enjoyed by teachers under the eastern cultural milieu. Teaching has now
unfortunately, become the employment of last resort of most educated young persons, especially males.
Therefore, SESP stresses on Teacher Education and Development (TED) as a defining feature for quality
education and learning in schools. On a positive note, the ECE curriculum has been devised and is available,
20
efforts are being made to increase ECE teacher vacancies and, focus is being laid on teacher training and
Teacher Performance Management. He concluded his presentation by proposing some recommendations for
ECE teacher preparation which included formulation of mandatory recruitment rules for ECE teachers’
qualification making diploma in ECE, a mandatory qualification. Moreover, recruitment on the basis of merit,
induction of training of ECE Teachers in local language and using ECE curriculum, provision of all requisite
facilities in TTIs, quality assurance of ECE training by Sindh Teacher Education and Development Authority
(STEDA), Teacher Performance Management by DEO and CPD on cyclic basis (after every three years.
21
Day 2
Day 2 – Session 1: Research and Assessment
Sandeep, Sharma-Research Associate, Center of Early Childhood Education and Development
(CECED), Ambedkar University, Delhi
Mr Sharma presented his paper titled : "Readiness for School, Impact for ECED". He explained the concept of
ECED and its implications in the case of India, he added that low enrollment rate. high dropout rate and low
learning levels are some of the national early childhood care education policy concerns in India. However, he
drew attention of the participants towards another possibility i.e., whether these policy shortfalls are because
the children’s lack of readiness for school. His presentation revolved around two basic questions. Firstly, to
what extent are the 3 to 5 year olds ‘school ready’ and reflective in their cognitive, language & personal social
development? Secondly, to what extent are the school readiness levels associated with quality of children’s
ECE experience and which elements of the ECE content and processes have greater impact on school
readiness? He extended his research questions to incorporate the quality of ECE programs, trends in school
readiness levels of children in terms of specific competencies and progress made by children in 1 year with
respect to the impact of gender along with age and participation in ECE programs. Moreover, another aspect
to study in relative detail is the way these gains relate to quality variations keeping household factors and age
controlled. He outlined a framework for quality ECE programs which included interactive & age-appropriate
learning opportunities, better attendance & participation in ECE programs, improved school readiness skills &
concepts, better utilization of primary schooling opportunities through better attendance & participation and
better primary level outcomes in terms of retention, attendance, achievement & social adjustment. Moreover
he also briefly covered the sampling procedure and the methodology of his research study.
Furthermore he discussed the quality variations in ECE programs with the participants. Government run
Anganwadi, Private Preschool and Innovative ECE are three of the emerging models in ECE and he discussed
the three models in relative detail. The presentation highlighted results showing the time on task analysis of
the aforementioned models. Mr Sharma said that cognitive concepts, psycho-social and language skills and
concepts are the three assessment tools for evaluating school readiness of children. He then explained the
readiness of an average 5 year old child under these evaluative tools. He added that a multi nominal logistic
regression analysis confirms, that after controlling for mother’s education, age and participation in ECE
programs emerges as a significant factor for school readiness emerge as significant factors as older children (4
½ - 5 ½ year ) benefit more from ECE experience in comparison to the younger children (3 ½ - 4 ½ year).
Towards the end of his presentation he discussed the regression outcomes of his research study according to
which; infrastructure and material, classroom management, curricular transaction and teacher disposition are
important ECE program quality indicators and have a profound impact in the school readiness of children.
Concluding his presentation he devised a few outcomes from the discussion and his presentation firstly, that
school readiness levels across states and across models are low particularly in cognitive and language
concepts and skills, this may result in low learning levels in grade 1 and 2. Participation in ECE programs
22
leads to higher levels of school readiness. Moreover, the age at which children are exposed to ECE
programmes is an important factor in having an impact on school readiness indicating need for age
appropriate curriculum with more structured activities for 4 to 5 year olds. Most importantly, interactive and
child friendly teachers is a significant factor especially for developing cognitive and language competencies.
Some of the curriculum areas requiring strengthening are, phonemic awareness sequential thinking, pattern
making, classification and self- regulation capabilities.
Dr Muzaffruddin-Country Representative, BRAC Pakistan
Dr. Muzaffaruddin presented on ‘Pre-primary education to ultra-poor: from Access to Quality’, he informed
the participants that BRAC is associated with 955 schools throughout the country. Furthermore, he mentioned
that BRAC’s ECE project is functional in three districts of KPK with a student enrolment of 7,600 children of
ages 3-5 years. He emphasized the importance and general inclination towards private schools in Pakistan; in
contrast in Bangladesh he said, children preferred going to public schools where there is a strong monitoring
system. He also emphasized on innovation and evolution in the educational practice however, he said that
BRAC believes in simple small low-cost innovation such as arranging shoes in different shapes every day to
help stimulate innovation and independent thinking skills in children from an early age.
Audrey D’Souza Juma-Director at Notre Dame Institute of Education
Ms. Juma presented her paper on “Gender Discourses and Teacher-Talk: Re-conceptualizing Teachers' Roles
in Promoting Gender Equity in Pakistani Early Childhood Classrooms”. The research objectives were
primarily to unearth gender discourses in early childhood classrooms in Pakistan through teacher talk and to
explore how teachers can re-conceptualize their role so as to promote alternative discourses of gender equity
in their classrooms. The study incorporated Feminist Post-structuralism as a research framework and
Participatory Action Research as a methodology which engages people in the research process to address their
own needs and thus ‘generate knowledge’, especially categorizing shared ownership of research projects,
community-based analysis of social problems and orientation towards community action (Kemmis &
McTaggart, 2000). Further on, she introduced her co-researchers on the project which included ECE teachers
and a few school systems who engaged with the project purely based on interest in working with gender
issues and willingness to bring about change and promote gender equity.
She explained that Teachers locate themselves with various discourses like the essentialist discourse,
discourses around sexuality and, discourses of morality and discourses on male supremacy. She emphasized
that these discourses constituted a specific set of truths or a ‘regime of truth’– such as religious patriarchy,
these truth claims constituted a regime of truth that was visible and operating as discourses and governed the
teachers however, they shifted within/without these discourses. While, the regime operated to govern
teachers’ understanding of gender equity, not all the discourses circulating, were accepted as ‘truth.
Furthermore, she pointed out that gender equity in education and development of children is a troubling issue;
equity should be constructed around ‘equal opportunities. Girls need to be given the same status ‘darja’ as
boys and should be valued and treated in similar fashion as boys. She briefly talked over the various gender
equity projects such as, engaging children in block play, employing mixed groups for children to work
together, treating children as human beings, working with a rights perspective towards gender and using
23
stories to disrupt gender stereotypes. Some of the gender equity works include ending segregation, calling on
boys and girls for all tasks, using gender inclusive language, using dialogue to challenge power differentials,
intervening in children’s play and using a gender ‘lens’ to observe children. Therefore, working for gender
equity is ‘risky’ with many contradictions and multiple ‘truths’ but, there is a need to look at whose ‘truth’ is
marginalized and silenced, not all discourses operating within the regime of truth could be disrupted and
certain others could only partially be disrupted and the study opened doors to explore alternative ways and
storylines to address gender.
Mr. Tanveer-Director Provincial Education, Provincial Education Assessment Center (PEACe),
Bureau of Curriculum & Extension Wing Sindh, Jamshoro
Mr. Tanveer presented on ‘Assessment and Learning Standards for ECE’ and started off by giving a brief
introduction to PEACe. He said that in order to formulate an effective ECE program it is essential to study its
strengths and challenges, its interests, attitudes and dispositions. Moreover, there is a need to guage the
effectiveness of the curriculum and planned experiences for a specific child or group of children; to address
and plan for the strengths and needs of all students; to evaluate achievement and attainment. It is also
important to essentially identify and incorporate children with special needs and in decision making regarding
teaching and learning. He stressed that assessment drives and learning are a recurring cycle as depicted in
figure 19. He also emphasized that assessment for pre-primary children should be age appropriate, aligned
with curriculum standards and comprehensive as it has numerous future implications. The key learning areas
of the National Curriculum 2007-ECE includes personal & social development, language and literacy, basic
mathematical concepts, the world around us, health hygiene and safety and creative Arts as important facets
of the ECE policy.
He further added that there are a few expected outcomes or goals related to personal & social Development
(Learning Area) that need to be achieved after ECE programs are implemented. Such as understanding of like
and dislike, working in collaboration, developing an appreciation for the diversity of people around them,
awareness of their own religion, demonstration of a sense of responsibility for them and others and lastly,
learning about and appreciating heritage/culture of their own family, their peers and neighbors. He added that
in order to promote learning, the teacher should discover the need of the competence and plan activities and
interact with child accordingly. She explained that the ECE classroom assessment is procedural with various
necessary steps. Starting off by setting targets and writing objectives, then choosing an assessment, tools and
technique followed by administering the assessments and analyzing the data and lastly, sharing the results
with parents. Figure 20 shows how an Early Childhood Assessment differs from a Grade 4 Assessment. In
the concluding phase of her presentation she said that full time teachers for Katchi class/pre-Primary
Education will be trained and recruited, capacity building of ECE teacher in the area of classroom assessment,
ELOAF may be developed for effective classroom assessment. Moreover, learning standards, competencies,
expected learning outcomes can be translated in local languages and wider dissemination and lastly, summary
reports should be completed three times a year for each child based on teacher observation.
24
Purnima Ramanujan-Senior Research Associate at ASER Center India
Ms Ramanujan presented her longitudinal research on the “Pathways and Learning in Early Years: Data from
3 districts of India", Telengana, Assam and Rajasthan. Her study included large scale rapid assessment on a
district level for collecting estimates of participation and early learning. The exercise included large scale
rapid assessment and district level estimates of participation and early learning and, evaluation of school
readiness assessment- to check basic vocabulary, cognitive, lingual and pre literacy skills and development.
The Early Learning assessment for Grade 1 evaluated the students on their early language, arithmetic and
cognitive skills. Her findings revealed that a high provisioning of ECE centers did not necessarily mean
participation (RJ) also, Children take many ‘pathways’ through ECE and/or primary school, these ‘pathways’
are very different in each state leading to a lack of uniformity in the data collection making it difficult to
derive an inference. Moreover, the findings also revealed that children are entering school before the official
age and consequently, over two-thirds children are in primary schools although, large proportions are below
the official age of entry to school.
Furthermore, she presented a detail study of the ECE program provision and usage in the three districts. Her
findings revealed that at Visit 7 (October – November 2013), over two-thirds of all children were in school
although there are state variations. Also, Teleganga has the highest proportion of children who transitioned
into school in Year 3, followed by Rajasthan while in Assam, over half of all children remain in ECEs. The
transition into school was not uniform among children in different states. Moreover, in 2 of 3 states, over 95%
children were enrolled somewhere on all 7 visits. In Rajhastan higher proportions participate ‘irregularly’ and
in TG over three quarters of all children have mixed exposure, to both pre-primary and primary. Therefore,
the irregular participation or with movement between different types of centers make it difficult to locate the
impact. Whilst over 3 years the results show that all children improve across tests however, overall levels are
comparatively low and there are variations in performance by state; while children in Assam and Teleganga
have similar scores on SRI, those in Teleganga do better on Grade 1 assessments. Another observation from
the study was that, children who participate more (frequency of enrollment) do have better outcomes but even
within the full dosage category, ‘type’ of dosage and state matters.
The concluding inferences from the presentation was that, pre-primary education matters but there is need for
a policy to define the number of years of ECE exposure required for a child. Young children are entering
formal school environments earlier than the official age thereby, there are challenges associated for such
children with learning in an developmentally-inappropriate environment. Moreover, there is need to look at
Age 3-6/7/8 as the ‘early learning years’ so that a continuum can be maintained; as for India, children entering
school are doing so with limited skills. Expectations thus need to be realistic, based on children’s’ levels
rather than on vague over projected curriculum frameworks and textbooks.
25
Day 2 – Session 2: Innovation: Access, Parenting and Materials
Sudeshna Sengupta-Senior Advocacy Manager, Mobile Creches – India
Under innovations in ECED Ms. Sengupta;s presentation was on “Innovative Responses to Challenges on the
Ground”. She commenced her presentation by defining the term ECCE and the ECCE Policy in India as of
2013. The ECCE in India is faced with various challenges such as diverse situations – geographical, ethnic,
religious, cultural and linguistic; urbanization – challenges of space/infrastructure; convergence and access –
inclusion, equity and poverty. Moving on, she spoke over the response from Mobile Creches for children of
migrant parents, those in urban slums and all children at risk - income poverty, poverty of opportunity etc.
The response included direct interventions–services; model building; community mobilization and system
strengthening with community engagement; mobile creches as a resource and leading civil society movements
and policy interventions. One of the holistic day care model included care and protection incorporating
nutrition, education, community awareness and health as essential components of the day care policy. The
Day Care program had overwhelming and profuse outcomes with an average of 1200 children everyday being
provided safety, security and protection; relief from sibling care for 400 children; improvement in the
nutritional grade by 72%; age appropriate immunization by 98%; mainstreaming of older children from 20 to
30%; linkage with government health services and integration of ECCE programs everyday with planned
activities.
She stressed on learning by playing and empowering mothers to yield effective results on child learning and
development. She also, underlined the need to initiate community engagement to work with the government to
strengthen the state provisions at the local level. One strategy for empowering communities and strengthening
services for children in urban slums is to integrate various aspects of the society empowerment of
communities, strengthening of services, link with government programs and other childcare services, building
community groups and family based interventions. The impact of various child care and protection policies id
illustrated in figure 21. Community mobilization was accompanied by reality check on status of Integrated
Care and Development Services (ICDS), inauguration of 80 anganwadis through demand generation from
community, study has been conducted to assess the need for childcare with 1380 household in 23 slums and a
couple of public hearing resulting in improved quality of nutrition and timings of a number of ICDS centers.
Resultantly, the key learnings from various assessments and programs revealed, a holistic design - linked to
nutrition, health and care; curriculum and Guidelines (context specific and flexible) on daily activities; quality
norms; teaching and learning materials; community engagement; Program Operations & Systems; supervision
and monitoring; stakeholder participation; human resource and capacity building; infrastructure and adequate
financial resources as the essential elements of a successful ECCE program. On the issue of using Mobile
Creches as a resource proposed perspective and capacity building on ECCE and operationalizing crèches for
government agencies, NGOs and community women to create a pool of trained, informed institutions and
26
professionals thereby, creating indigenous training and learning material. The last response indicated towards
leading civil society movements this included, networking with grassroots organizations, rights groups and
campaigns, state networks, academia, experts and practitioners on the policy intervention from the response
included serving on the government committees, ddialogues with the government agencies linking with
International Agencies. sIn the end she briefly mentioned the ECCE policy and birth of alliance which aim at
the Right to ECD (H, N, E, C, P) as a justifiable right and it seeds in the Right to Education movement of
2002 where under sixes were left out as it was inter-sectoral, expensive and complex
Sahar Saeed-Program Manager, ASER Pakistan-ITA Pakistan
Ms. Sahar Saeed’s presentation was on “Issues of Access & Learning in Early Childhood Education:
Emerging Trends & Challenges from ASER Pakistan”. The presentation drawing on data from trends from
ASER Pakistan. According to the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2013-14 revealed poor levels of learning
(at lower grades) of primary school resulting in millions of children leaving education before acquiring basic
skills. The linguistic, cognitive and social skills that children develop in early childhood are the foundations
for lifelong learning. Also, Studies from many countries, including Chile, India and Madagascar, show the
contribution of pre-school to overall cognitive abilities. She further added that recognition and strengthening
of Katchi class as part of formal system, universal access to ECE shall be ensured within the next ten years
and two year pre-service training to ECE teachers was promised as per the ECE policy in the National
Education Policy -NEP 2009 & Article 25 A – Right to Education –for 5-16 years. She pointed at the nonavailability of basic facilities in government schools: only 64% government primary schools have drinkable
water facility, 57% have complete boundary walls and 47% have usable toilets. This cumulatively has impact
on who stays and who leaves the public sector schools, especially in the early grades.
Ms. Saeed emphasized that although much stress is on enrolment, the real question is whether the schools are
ready to induct young children and provide them with a thriving, curious and positive nurturing learning
environment? Secondly, do the schools have sufficient learning resource material to make the experience
meaningful? Thirdly, are there teachers available and trained to facilitate a batch of 30-50 -90 children? And
lastly, do the teachers’ realize the significance of ECE and do they see themselves as quality caregivers?
Approaching the end of the MDGs she said, there is a need to pay heed to research and start implementing
policies; move from ECE to ECCE (0-8 years), end the randomness of policies and plans and investment for
this important area.
She like many others emphasized that there is a to develop the connection between research and policy,
between the school and community, numeracy/literacy with cognition and development and to turn attention
to the role of teachers in early grades and focus on pre-service and in-service training. Without an investment
and resource strategy for quality, children will continue to suffer from social, emotional and learning stress
especially, the bottom ones. Emergent health and education collaboration must be strengthened for
institutional ownership and the beginning of an ECCE program in Pakistan. Lastly, there is a need for a multisectoral stakeholders group to formulate ECD/ECCE national strategy document with provincial ownership
27
and ideally speaking there is a need to devise a stand-alone goal for ECE (ARNEC, ECCE Consultative
group) in the post 2015 period.
Day 2 – Session 3: Groups and Group Work Facilitated by Moderators
Group Work Guidelines for the Karachi Declaration or Consensus Statement:



Please discuss strategies for implementation on the designated theme of your group .
Please consider the following while devising the strategies for the specific themes:
 Guiding Principles
 Moving Forward, next steps with respect to the needs/ challenges within the country/ region
 Influencing /refining the post 2015 targets
Please review the thematic section of the Karachi Declaration/Consensus Statement and modify as
required.
Group 1: Policy and Right to Education status on ECED
Moderated by Dr. Muhammad Memon and Baela Raza Jamil
Group 1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Policy and Right to Education Status on ECED
Syed Tanzeem
Dr. Mohammad Memon
Bushra Faheem
Muznah Faheem
Azim Sajidi
Rubina Jalib
Saeed ul Hassan
Muzzaffarudin
M. Irfan Khan Jadoon
Abidullah Kaka Khel
G. Murtaza
Abdul Rauf Khandra
Sheela Devi
Nadir Hussain
M. Akber Memon
Nuzhat Bukhari
Lila Ram
Yasmeen Hirani
Zahra Shaheen
Farwa Fatima
Group 2: Curriculum and Standards
Moderated by Audrey Juma and Huma Sikander
28
Group 2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Curriculum and Standards
Huma Sikander
Firdous Ali Lalwani
Ali Raza Khoja
Noor Muhammad
Khurram Habib
Audrey Juma
Eleanor Banal Murtuza
Rana Hussain
Farzana Kausar
Firdous
Ali Raza
Noor Muhammad
Khurram Habib
Khalid Mehmood Memon
Tanveer Ahmed Khan
Idrees Jatoi
Aliya Zahra Hussain
Kiran Zubair
Group 3: Teacher Preparation (Pre and in-service)
Moderated by Dr. Bernadette Dean
Group 3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Teacher Preoaration (Pre and In-service)
Hina Amin
Mussarat Rehman
Naseem Parveen
Zaib un Nisa Mangi
Zamir Abro
Waleed Zarakzai
Maqbool Ahmed
Iman Zaidi
Zulfiqar Bachani
Mohammad Afzal Khan
Fatima
Qamar Shahid Siddiqui
Muhammad Shahid Saleem
Atta Muhammad
Bernadatte L. Dean
Abdul Qasim
S. Khadija Murtaza
29
Group 3
18
19
Teacher Preoaration (Pre and In-service)
Dr. Kamran Ahmed
Hassan Rind
Group 4: Research and Assessment
Moderated by Dr. Ghazzala Rafique, Dr. Kammaludin and Sandeep Sharma
Group 4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Research and Assessment
Cassandra Fernandas
Nadia Razzaq
Sana Akhtar
Aisha Nauman
Yu-Ling Liu- Smith
Mansoor Asdazgi
Mohammad Saghir Sheikh
Dr. S. Kamaluddin
Damar Fatima
Sanober Naz
Purnima Ramanujan
Sandeep Sharma
Dr. Anjum Bano Kazimi
Naila Siddiqui
Ulfatwah
Saba saeed
Dr. Mushtaq Noorewala
Mumtaz Pirzada
Ulfat Bangash
Asad Ali Aslam
Group 5: Innovation: Access, Parenting and Materials
Moderated by Dr. Shanta Dixit, Sudeshna Sengupta
Group 5
1
2
Innovations: Access, Parenting and Materials
Neelofar Ali
Sonal Saeed
30
Group 5
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Innovations: Access, Parenting and Materials
Nabeeha Sajid
Rumana Hussain
Rohan Saleem
Yousuf Ahmed Ibrahim
Abrar Shahwani
Abdul Faheem Noonari
M Alam Thaheem
Mehboob Ali
Inam ul Haq
Ali Usman
Seema Zia
Sudeshna Sengupta
Rozina Jumani
Nasreen Faheem
Amra Alam
Day 2 – Special Contributions shared by eminent presenters from India and Bangladesh
Special Contributions shared by eminent presenters from India and Bangladesh with the conference
participants by experts who could not be present due to the postponement of the conference from June to
September 2014
Dr. Venita Kaul-Director of the School of Education/ Center for Early Childhood Education and
Development (CECED), Ambedkar University Delhi
Dr. Kaul’s keynote presentation was titled ‘ECCE Policy in India: Process, Promise and Prospects’. The
presentation highlighted the Indian context and perception of ECCE; ECCE in context of Right to Education
(RTE) in 2009; the ECCE policy in India, 2012 and its different facets; the role of Higher Learning
Institutions and CECED. She started off by defining the notion of ECCE and ECD in the case of India; it is
defined as care, nutrition, health and education provisions for children from prenatal to 6/8 years of age which
nurtures their holistic and integrated development. She delved into details of the stage-wise development of a
child and the necessary and required measures to aid sustainable development at each stage. Her presentation
highlighted the discrepancy in the ECCE policy and implementation in India as per the 2009 evaluation.
However, in spite of uneven execution of ECE in India, it has yielded a better learning rate, greater readiness
to attend formal school and 15-20% increase in children’s retention in primary grades those who have
undergone ECE. This trend was supported with evidence based on the research undertaken by CECED. The
western research attributes higher incomes and incidence of home ownership, lower propensity to be on
welfare and lower rates of crime and arrest to investment in ECCE. She reiterated that India has an established
policy and programmatic framework for ECCE, but there are challenges attached to it like, Integrated Child
31
Development Services (ICDS) and need for its restructuring. Moreover, the Indian National Policy on ECE
has adopted a participatory approach with its focus on universal access with equity and inclusion and quality
in ECCE. There is a need to strengthen capacity in monitoring and supervision of ECCE programs; though
ECCE has garnered considerable support and focus it still faces many challenges. Lack of institutional
capacity and parental awareness, poor infrastructure and human resources, lack of a data base on ECCE along
with, an unregulated and expanding private sector, rote learning and poor quality ECE are the major hurdles in
way of its effective implementation in India.
Mahmuda Akhter-Executive Director, Institute of Child and Human Development (ICHD)
Mahmuda Akhter’s presentation was prepared and sent to the participants. It was titled ‘Comprehensive
ECCD
Policy
in
Bangladesh:
How it evolves with GO-NGO Collaboration’. The achievements of Bangladesh were shared in terms of
making a rapid headway in human development according to the HDR 2013 and achieving the MDGs;
reducing the poverty gap ratio, attaining gender parity at primary and secondary education, reduction in
under-five mortality rate. Ms. Akhtar highlighted the development of ECCD in the post-independence
Bangladesh in a chronological order. As of 2013 courses on ECD have been incorporated in to graduate and
post-graduate studies; module on ECD incorporated in to health and family welfare front line workers training
curriculum; ELDS developed; ECCD issues incorporated in different policies; service delivery model
developed for different age groups; awareness and mobility among parents and communities over the issue.
She further added that a strong national network on ECD has been established alongside, an effectively
functional framework of Pre-primary Education (PPE) with a national curriculum and development of service
delivery material, teacher training with an increased budget allocation to PPE have been the milestones so far
covered by Bangladesh in ECED. The Comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Development Policy was
approved in Bangladesh on November 4, 2013. Within the last 12 years, multiple interest groups have evolved
with different platforms for collaboration, windows of opportunity, engagement for technical support and
demonstration of model crucial for policy making on ECD. Interest on ECD also increased at the ministerial
level which has had a positive impact on the ECD movement as the government is part of this network with a
proper mandate, a well-structured multi level engagement along with technical capacity and capacity building.
Furthermore, NGOs’/CSOs’ representation is significant and, always welcomed and encouraged by the
government for their technical expertise in all committees/working groups of government at every level.
This collaboration of stakeholders was the key to the ECD success in Bangladesh from 2000 to 2013,
Bangladesh is therefore a good example of GO-NGO collaboration in the field of ECD. The policy and vision
encompasses provision of full care, development, protection and survival support for developing strong
foundation for life-long development with equal importance to all regardless of their ethnicity, geographical
location, gender, religion, socio-economic condition, ability and special needs. The Policy therefore aims at
early preparation of the pregnant mother , the holistic need of young children in early ages, building strong
foundation for holistic development and school readiness, smooth transition to primary education, reduction in
disparity and mainstreaming of the issues of children with disabilities, marginalized and excluded groups. The
32
policy therefore, comprised of 8 strategic principles; holistic approach, continuity of services, parenting,
Engagement & Ownership, Age & Culturally appropriate, inclusion, Equality & Equity in Gender, Life Cycle
Approach. She said that ELDS has been set as technical standard for ECCD programming. She concluding by
briefly going over the implementation strategy and other important issues that the policy covered as well.
Dr. Renu Singh-Country Director, “Young Lives”
Dr. Singh shared a presentation on ’Early Childhood Care and Education is Promoting Equity?’. Global
figures and evidence were shared on ECD, malnutrition, inequities in access to early childhood programs,
regional variations, gender parity in PPE, disparities within the countries by wealth and location, exclusion of
children with disabilities and increasing presence of the private sector. She presented ECCE. She highlighted
the different perspectives and facets of ECCE; ECCE as a mechanism for promoting equality of access to the
workforce for women and as such, a support for economic development, ECCE as a mechanism for
combating educational disadvantage or social exclusion, ECCE as a mechanism for promoting equality of
access to the workforce for women and as such, a support for economic development; its economic return on
Investment and its contribution to breaking the poverty cycle. Her presentation illustrated the impact of
ECCE intervention as an effective tool in aiding learning and development for the most disadvantaged
children. She also emphasized the Ecological framework for equity and inclusion with macro and micro
policy initiatives
Dr. Singh’s presentation alluded to the daunting challenges of ECCE in terms of equity, negligible public
funding for ECCE, inadequate training, certification and incentives for ECCE, lack of attention to
marginalized and disadvantaged groups, weak coordination between sectors and with family and above all
dearth of relevant data. ‘Universalization with quality’ is still a distant goal in India pertaining to a huge
variation in services in ICDS and the private sector. She supported her claim with figure 6 which shows the
percentage of children (age 4.5 and 5 years) enrolled in private and government pre-schools. Clearly, the
enrollment in government schools is indirectly proportional to the financial standing of various groups. It is
important to recognize that will and capacity are the key aspects to achieving equity in ECCE. ECCE is not
about a ‘one-size fits all’ application if the desired outcomes are to be achieved; there is a need to come up
with targeted social policies for vulnerable families and decentralized interventions and innovations along
with a broader service orientation and multi-stakeholder interaction in decision making. In the end she
proposed a genuine ‘Partnership- South-South’: building an enabling policy environment with associated
equity-based allocations and interventions which are the key to realizing the rights of every young child who
are the future of nation-states. She iterated that it is imperative that all stakeholders collaborate to make ECCE
part of the global post-2015 agenda.
The concluding session was a rich end to the two day regional conference culminating in the reading of
the Karachi Consensus Statement. Dr. Fazal ullah Pechuho underscored the need to take bolder
measures for ECED in South Asia, Pakistan and Sindh including lowering of the RTE age group from 5
to 3 or even younger to have the necessary impact on children, mothers, families and community. He
emphasized the need for merit based hiring of capable teachers for ECE/ECED. Ms. Saba Mahmud
thanked the particpants from Pakisstan and the region for their valuable and intensive participation.
33
She hoped that this will lead to collaborations within and outside the country in the region in the areas
of knowledge sharing, research and other collaborative innovations for ECE/ECED and ECCE.
All presentations and process documents on ECE/ECED are available on the website:
http://regionalconference.rtepakistan.org/presentations.php
ASER Policy Brief Booklet on ECE, as circulated in the conference, is available at:
http://www.aserpakistan.org/document/aser_policy_briefs/2013/ECE-ASER%20policy%20briefnotes%20booklet.pdf
Annex A: Picture Gallery
34
35
36
Annex B: Media Coverage
Katchi to be changed into ECE classes, says Khuhro
(Daily Times) September 18, 2014
KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Tuesday said Katchi (orientation class) in the
province would soon be transformed into Early Childhood Education (ECE) class. Read More
'Katchi' to be transformed into ECE class: Khuhro
(The Nation) September 17, 2014
Sindh Education Minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro on Tuesday said karachi (Orientation Class) in the province
would soon be transformed into Early Childhood Education (ECE) class. Read More
Moot stresses early childhood education, care
(DAWN News) September 17, 2014
KARACHI: “It is the milestones of early years that will enable our children to complete transitions to
primary, post-primary and secondary education. The young need carefully crafted attention, including
nurturing, nutrition and teaching, so that they can grow up as tall, well-supported, informed and responsible
citizens,” said senior minister for education and literacy Nisar Ahmed Khuhro. Read More
'Katchi' to be transformed into ECE classes: Nisar Khuhro
(Business Recorder) September 16, 2014
KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Tuesday said Katchi (orientation class) in the
province would soon be transformed into Early Childhood Education (ECE) class. Read More
Regional Conference on Right to Education opens in Karachi
(OnePakistan) September 16, 2014
Karachi, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agaahi, along with Education and Literacy Department, Government of Sindh
Pakistan, South Asia Forum for Education Development (SAFED) and development partners
(OSF/DFID/Dubai Cares and Oxfam GB)convened a regional conference on the Right to Education & Early
Childhood Education and Development; Foundation for Quality Learning-Evidence from South Asia- in
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan from September 16th – 17th, 2014 at Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi. Read More
Asian Perspective opens in Karachi
(Pakistan News Releases) September 16, 2014
Karachi, September 16, 2014 (PPI-OT): Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agaahi, along with Education and Literacy
Department, Government of Sindh Pakistan, South Asia Forum for Education Development (SAFED) and
development partners (OSF/DFID/Dubai Cares and Oxfam GB)convened a regional conference on the Right
to Education and Early Childhood Education and Development; Foundation for Quality Learning-Evidence
from South Asia- in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan from September 16th – 17th, 2014 at Pearl Continental Hotel,
Karachi. Read More
37
Annex C: Regional Conference leads the Way Forward: Sindh Govt. Drafts the First-Ever ECE
Policy in Pakistan
Karachi, 18th November 2014: “Reform Support Unit Education and Literacy Department is working for
introduction of Early Childhood Education in public schools of Sindh,” reported Ms. Saba Mahmood, Chief
Program Manager at Reform Support Unit (RSU), Education and Literacy Department, Government of Sindh.
“As far as the implementation plan is concerned RSU will play the role of a focal institute for ECE
initiatives”, she added.
RSU E&LD has been closely working with a Task Force for ECE, comprising of members from public
organizations, NGO/INGOs and practitioners to formulate Policy of Early Childhood Education. Baela Raza
Jamil, Director Programs at Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) actively worked with RSU to draft the ECE
policy 2014. Please find the policy at: http://www.rsusindh.gov.pk/contents/ECE/4th/ECEP%20Policy%20Draft.pdf.
Further building the collaboration, Baela Raza Jamil and Saba Mahmood, presented at the ARNEC
Conference on Early Childhood Development on the Global Agenda: “Building partnerships for
Sustainability and Harmony" in Manila December 3-5, 2014. The Plenary session on day one was on:
Alliance building and partnerships for more holistic and inclusive ECD. The presentation mapped new
partnerships and alliance building models for ECD unpacking these options in the run up to the post 2015
development agenda. It illustrated innovative partnership models that demonstrate value for money
propositions embedded in robust evidence, involving transcending of boundaries of a single sector approach
and myopic targets to create a sound platform for the fullest human development through ECD. Please find
the presentation at: http://www.rsu-sindh.gov.pk/ECE/ece.php.
38
Annex D: Program of the Regional Conference
PROGRAM:
39
40
41
Annex E: Attendance sheet
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61