UNESCO's Early Childhood Care and Education Website

As my attempts to make international contacts never quite worked out, I will be again working on the alternative assignment.  I look forward to reading about what my classmates have found out from the people they were able to connect with outside of the United States, though.

This week I looked at UNESCO’s Early Childhood Care and Education webpage.  According to the website, “UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children’s holistic development.” 

The first thing I chose to explore was a news article entitled International Day of the Girl Child.  The article talked about empowering girls, through education, to help them avoid poverty, violence, and discrimination around the world.  The article touched on issues that I don’t think of often in the United States, especially the idea of very young girls getting married.   

Next, I looked into the section called “Access and Equity”.  This section talked about different programs put into place to ensure that all children have access to quality care.  In some cases, this means redistributing wealth or thinking about things in a different way to accommodate poor families.  The aim should be that all children have the chance to learn no matter what their family background or economic status.

Finally, I chose to look at the page about “Quality”.  UNESCO’s view is that early childhood programs and early care should teach the whole child.  This type of ease into learning will help children transition into more formal instruction in older grades.  While there are no universal standards for what makes a quality program, they believe that there are some things all programs should have.  Individuals working with young children should be adequately trained and the programs should be checked up on regularly.

This website had great information on access, equity, and quality.  On top of that, there were many great news articles on related topics.  I found many new, interesting, and thought-provoking facts and areas to explore on UNESCO’s site this week.