Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training, Engnr. Muhammad Baligh ur Rehman was Chief Guest at the Inaugural Session of first ever National Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) organized by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training in collaboration with Early Child Development (ECD) Network of Pakistan and other national and international partner organizations including Rupani Foundation, JICA, UNICEF and UNESCO here at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Monday.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister lauded the novel initiative and said that early years of a child’s growth are the formative years that have a lasting effect on their entire life. “The early years are important not only in terms of education but also for nutritional care and character building of a child and hence ECCE demands serious attention from us”, he said. Minister suggested that ECCE should not refer to the age bracket of 0 to 8 years but of -1 to 8 years and should also include one year prior to a child’s birth. “Research suggests that the development of a child’s brain is rigorous during the early months of pregnancy which requires presence of adequate amount of folic acid in mother’s body; therefore as part of ECCE, counseling sessions of the expecting mothers should start 3 months prior to pregnancy”, he shared.
Minister said that Sustainable Development Goal 4.2 also requires ensuring access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education for all children by 2030. “SDGs are also our National Development Goals and we are committed to achieving these targets”, he proclaimed. He said that the new education policy being worked on will incorporate a separate chapter on ECCE. “Under the Prime Minister Education Reform Program, federal capital will have montessori level education in all schools by the end of the year; model montessori classrooms have already been introduced in 11 schools of Islamabad so far”, Minister said. “To address financial constraints of widening access to ECCE, the government is also envisioning public-private partnerships for ECCE initiatives”, he announced. Alluding to the successful policies of present government, Minister also referred to elevation in the ranking of Pakistan by 12 positions in the recently released World Happiness Index. In his concluding remarks, Minister hoped that the conference would be instrumental in guiding the future course on ECCE in the country and will present customized solutions for the indigenous ECCE issues.
Earlier, Mr. Rafiq Tahir, Joint Education Adviser to the Ministry introduced three major objectives of conference to the audience: bringing all stakeholders to one forum; reviewing the current status of ECCE in Pakistan and charting future direction; and providing a forum to learn best practices, disseminate research and promote collaboration on ECCE. He said that Education, Health and Nutrition departments work in isolation loosing the benefits of holistic approach to ECC. “Early child interventions by private and development sector are also scattered; this conference will help synergize efforts and formulate strategies to integrate ECCE activities across the country”, he said.
Chairman ECD Network of Pakistan, Mr. Nasruddin Rupani remarked that their organization supports initiatives and provides guidance for a holistic approach towards ECCE. He said that their Network strives for inclusion of ECCE in the development agenda of the country. “Modern technology demands high standards of education which makes provision of early learning opportunities to students indispensible”, he said. Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, Vice Chancellor AIOU vowed to hold a regular annual conference on ECCE going forward and also announced to publish an independent research journal on the subject by the end of the year. “AIOU already has a diploma program for ECCE and we are planning to introduce a 4-year BS program as well soon”, he assured.
Mr. Yasuhiro Tojo, Chief Representative JICA Pakistan congratulated the Ministry for convening conference on a crucial aspect of education and said that recognizing the importance of ECCE and pre-primary education is significant for the sustainable development of the country. Ms. Cristian Lorena, Deputy Representative UNICEF said that timely investments in ECCE are invaluable and that guaranteed health and better education opportunities for children will help reduce poverty and achieve targets under SDGs.
Conference began with cultural performances and awareness tableaus by the students of Roots International School. The two-day conference was attended by around 300 delegates including researchers, practitioners, teacher and students from government and development sector.
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