Sustainability and Resilience of Holistic Approaches to Early Education

• In Event: Building resilient and sustainable early childhood care and education (ECCE) systems

Proposal

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) is an indispensable foundation for effective learning. Thus, the quality of education and of learning, as manifest in learning outcomes cannot be achieved without resilient and sustainable ECCE.

ECCE is also a formidable driver of equity of education access and of quality. Providing quality ECCE phenomenally improves chances of success in education and learning, especially for the disadvantaged. Furthermore, by improving learning outcomes, ECCE contributes to the internal efficiency of education systems and also to the associated resource efficiency.

Quality ECCE is a foundation for all aspects of human development, including health, nutrition, education and social balance. It is also a foundation for human resources development and for human capital accumulation required to support holistic, accelerated, inclusive and sustainable development. In 2010, the first ever World Congress on ECCE held in Moscow reaffirmed the right of all children to ECCE, and underscored it as the basis for “building the wealth of nations”.

The quality and equity of the quality of ECCE remain a global challenge, and so is its responsiveness to holistic early childhood development. Strengthening early childhood development is key to achieving at least seven of the SDGs, on poverty, hunger, health (including child mortality), education, gender, water and sanitation, and inequality.

The presentation focuses on catalyzing transformative change in the field of Early Education, as part of an institutional framework aimed at ensuring integration, coherence and holism. The presentation will discuss samples of early curriculum, early learning environment, elements of quality of education settings and scenarios, aimed at constituting a sustainable and resilient education approach for each and every country.

Early learning curriculum, based on a holistic approach, should entail relational, emotional, social competences as well as cognitive processes, based on experiences and play. Early learning environment should be designed in respect of the different rights of children, at different ages, with a focus on different abilities too. Elements of quality entail staff policies, teachers training, parents’ participation in the design of curriculum and of the children experience.

Author

• Christian Fabbi, UNESCO International Bureau of Education