Unfortunately, I did not receive a response from my international contacts so I reviewed the UNESCO website to learn a little more about early childhood in the international realms.
The first insight that I gained from the website is that education in most countries is considered a privilege that the rich children take part in. The children in poor families must stay home from school in order to help work the fields, or do other jobs that contribute to the basic needs of the family. The second insight that I gained from the website is that on literacy. It seems that I take things of this sort for granted many times but the other countries have no idea what literacy is. The numbers are shocking to me. The website said that 1 in 5 adults are not literate and 2/3 of them are women. UNESCO has tried to keep literacy at the top of their list when it comes to important topics but with 793 adults still not literate, reaching to goal of all becoming literate is a hard target to reach.
The third insight that I gained from the sight is that the governments have issues with dealing with early childhood. Education is placed in different sectors such as health and social sectors. Effective coordination must exist between the two but in many cases does not exist. The issues seen with developing and developed countries is finding a holistic approach to early childhood education.
Source -
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/access/
Hi! Andy,
ReplyDeleteI thought that was interesting to that the poor children stayed at home and the rich went to school. Whereas, in the U.S. it is different low income or at risk families get to go as well. I am sorry you did not hear from your international contact. I did not here from mine as well.
Amanda Stapleton-Tuhy