Mexico City, MexiqueThe first several years of a child’s life have long-lasting implications on performance in school, social skills and health. The value of early childhood development is widely recognized in preparing children for school and beyond, but in many low-resource contexts, access to early learning opportunities is limited.

At the Conférence de la Société d'éducation comparée et internationale en mars 29, experts on a panel titled “Building a Diverse Workforce for ECD in Low-Resource Contexts” said that part of the challenge is a lack of qualified teachers and facilitators.

Tassew Zewdie of Creative Associates International, former Chief of Party for the USAID La Zambie veut réussir projet, said in Zambia, the government has just in recent years started to make a push toward expanding early childhood development.

« Parce que l’éducation de la petite enfance n’était pas auparavant une priorité pour le ministère de l’Éducation de Zambie., il y a une très grave pénurie d'enseignants," il a dit. « Les possibilités d’élever nos enfants et de leur apporter les soins et le soutien appropriés sont très limitées. »

S’appuyer sur l’expérience de la Zambie, Rwanda et Burkina Faso, les panélistes ont démontré comment les programmes de développement contribuent à renforcer l'éducation de la petite enfance et à constituer un cadre d'enseignants capables de faciliter le développement de la petite enfance..

Ces initiatives, en collaboration avec les gouvernements nationaux et locaux, peut répondre aux besoins des jeunes enfants, parents, communautés et systèmes éducatifs.

Trained teachers sharing knowledge

In Lusaka, Zambie, Creative piloted an early childhood development program to support staff of the Projet Lire pour réussir de l’USAID et leurs enfants. The center, named La place de Mimi after late Creative co-founder Mimi Tse, gave project staff a place to bring their young children where they could learn and play.

Mimi’s Place employs a methodology called “The Creative Way,” which seeks to instill a lifelong love of learning in young children. The stimulating and nurturing classroom environment and skilled staff promotes hands-on learning, exploration and the development of reading and math skills.

Zewdie said that while the center was small – serving about 20 children – every employee who would interact with the kids received extensive training on a standardized “toolkit,” from the senior teacher to kitchen staff.

“The Mimi’s Place teachers, even though they may have previous training, they need to be trained on the toolkit, focusing on areas that are unique to facilitating early childhood education centers," il a dit. “After the center was established, these teachers started to serve as role models.”

Zewdie said that the Mimi’s Place staff brought new knowledge to the local “cluster” of teachers and also informed the Ministry of Education.

He added that other companies, such as hotels and banks, expressed interest in replicating the Mimi’s Place model for their own staff. And Creative plans to include similar early childhood education centers in other project locations outside of Zambia.

« D’autres enseignants bénéficient de l’expérience de ce centre, les parents en profitent, et le ministère de l'Éducation en profite car ils viennent apprendre,"Zewdie a dit. "Et d'autres entreprises ont commencé à vraiment réfléchir à la possibilité d'établir le même modèle pour leurs salariés."

Réduire le chômage grâce à l’éducation des enfants

Au Rwanda, le programme des soignants juniors, financé par le ROYAUME-UNI. Département du développement international, a cherché à soutenir l’éducation de la petite enfance grâce à une formation d’animatrices axée sur les jeunes femmes sans emploi.

Deux cents femmes de quatre provinces ont été formées et placées en stage de trois mois, accroître l'emploi et apporter les meilleures pratiques aux centres d'éducation de la petite enfance.

Jordan Detwiler-Michelson, Coordinatrice de projets internationaux à la Education Devleopment Center, said the training expanded on existing methodologies that prioritized literacy and numeracy to a more holistic approach that also focuses on motor skills, social emotional learning and conflict resolution.

“We discovered that the methodology gap is not that difficult to close," il a dit. “In this case, we were able to train relatively inexperienced young women who were then able to use best practices in early childhood development in the classrooms.”

Meeting teachers where they are

Carrie Lewis of the Education Development Center, said that in Burkina Faso, very few children receive early education, et seulement 21 percent of early childhood educators are qualified to teach, a majority of them having little or no literacy.

En réponse, the World Bank-funded Project to Improve Access to Quality Education is supporting community-based early childhood development centers called “bisongos,” and the Education Development Center has developed audio-based technology to improve instruction.

The Interactive Audio Instruction tools, used in several countries, create 30-minute audio lessons for the classroom driven by characters and stories that promote learning and engagement. The student lessons are complemented by audio lessons for the teachers themselves, which are done in groups and allow for distance learning.

“It uses the same type of methodology, the characters and the storylines, to mimic teaching challenges that they might find at the bisongos,” Lewis said of the teacher instruction. “The programs use the same methodology as the children, but they’re based on adult learning theory, so were looking at ways we can draw in the educators to work together to discuss, to review, to reflect.”

Lewis said that in a country with 60 percent illiteracy rate, programming has to adapt to be effective. Using audio-based lessons and other visual guides delivers information and training to illiterate and low-literacy instructors.

“We’re meeting facilitators where they are,” Lewis said.

Participer au CIES?

Pour visiter le CIES de Creative 2018 Centre de rapports spéciaux, Cliquez ici. Pour connaître le programme complet du CIES de Creative 2018 panneaux, y compris les panélistes, horaires et lieux, cliquez ici. En plus des panels, arrêtez-vous au stand 54 dialoguer avec des experts en éducation et en savoir plus sur les projets mondiaux de Creative. Suivez-nous sur Twitter @1977Créatif pour les mises à jour en direct.