Looking at positive impact of ECCD
Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) is a holistic approach to the implementation of policies and programmes for promoting the growth and development of children aged between zero and eight years.
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Care, in this context, refers to the provision of special services for effective child growth, Development is a process of change in which the child is helped to gain mastery of crucial life activities such as movement, thinking, feeling and interaction with people and objects in his or her physical environment.
ECCD, therefore, features major issues of the child’s life, including health, nutrition, education, protection and sanitation for better life.
Policies and programmes of ECCD
Government, in its efforts to provide the needed environment for children to access essential ECCD services, developed the ECCD policy which was launched in August 2004.
The rationale behind the ECCD policy is to provide a framework for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to meaningfully contribute to the growth, development and survival of the child. It also enhances the collaboration between MDAs and stakeholders in providing integrated and well-coordinated services for the optimum development of the child.
In 2012, a Government White Paper was released to redefine the initial nine-year basic education programme to include two years of kindergarten (KG) education, making it 11 years of basic school education to promote proper management and transition of the child.
As a country, we have been able to successfully mainstream our KG school system with the basic school education, as part of the recommendations of the Dakar World Forum for Education and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The provisions of the Education Strategic Plan (2010-2020) also support the prioritisation, expansion and improvement in the delivery of ECCD services.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) in July 2011 embarked on a process of developing an operational plan to scale up the quality of KG education in the country where learning activities and processes were mostly participatory, collaborative and interactive with the participation of a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including our foreign donors.
Achievements
There is an increase in basic school enrolment, with a current total of 1,766,715 pupils at KG as against 1,199,967 pupils in 2011/2012. In 2014/2015, the gross and net enrolment rates at KG were 128.8 per cent and 82.7 per cent, respectively, with a Gender Parity Index (GPI) of 1.04.
There has been a rise in the number of KGs. The total number of KGs stood at 18,915 in 2011/2012 compared to the current figure of about 20,960.
We have also had an exponential increase in the number of trained teachers of KG with a total of 42,417 in 2011/2012 as against the current figure of 52,007 teachers.
Creation of awareness of the policy of Inclusive Education is ongoing in communities, districts and regions with ancillary facilities under the Child-friendly School concept.
As part of ECCD service-extension and pre-service training programmes, the University of Cape Coast and the University of Education (Winneba) currently offer certificate, diploma, degree and even postgraduate courses in Early Childhood Education. Seven out of the 38 public colleges of education have also been running various courses in Early Childhood Education.
Training programmes
The National Nursery Teacher’s Training Centre also conducts training programmes to build the capacity of KG teachers, with In-service Education and Training (INSET) programmes also being operationalised to focus on effective KG teaching methodology.
A five-year Quality Operational KG Plan aimed at scaling up the quality of KG education service delivery has been developed with their assessment tools also being reviewed.
As we speak, a process has been initiated to review the KG curriculum to focus on literacy, numeracy, creative arts and play.
A National Steering Committee for ECCD has, therefore, been established to fast-track this review process.
Teaching and learning materials on National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP) have been properly developed to help teachers teach children effectively in their “mother tongue”. GES has also been working hard with stakeholders to develop, implement and monitor basic guidelines for establishing and managing KGs and early childhood development centres in the country.
KG education gives children the best start in life. It has the potential of producing a positive and lasting effect on the child.
*The writers are, respectively, the Head of the Early Childhood Unit and a Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service.