We are committed to promoting ECED with quality through an evidence-based approach. Therefore, research and evaluation is our core function.
We describe each of these initiatives in more detail below:
Longitudinal Study of Impact of participation in ECE and variation in Quality if ECE Experience on school readiness and primary level outcomes in children.
CECED partnered with UNICEF West Bengal to provide technical assistance for development of an ECCE curriculum to be piloted as a part of the MWCD initiative in several states. CECED team participated as a resource agency in several workshops and consultations organised by Unicef West Bengal and SSA West Bengal. West Bengal is one of the 19 states in the country which has developed a new curriculum and is piloting it in 50 Anganwadi centres according to guidelines provided by NIPCCD. CECED provided technical expertise to develop the curriculum, reviewed the methodology for field testing and provided some of the tools to document the implementation of the curriculum. A CECED faculty member conducted field visits to the pilot programs and also facilitated a focus group discussion with 12 Anganwadi workers who were participating in the pilot program. This was a very fruitful collaboration and we look forward to continuing the relationship in the coming year.
Advocacy continues to remain an important function of the Centre. CECED has been conducting activities, research and otherwise, in partnership with other organisations so as to create a momentum for developmentally appropriate child care and early learning. Some of the major initiatives in this regard are classified below:
Early Scope: The Early Childhood Care and Education Portal was launched in the South Asian Regional Conference in August 2012 by CECED. Early Scope is a carefully designed portal to attract people from all the spheres of ECCE. What makes Early Scope unique is that it has spaces defined to initiate focussed interactions across policy makers, practitioners, academicians, researchers, professionals, parents and ultimately the children themselves.Early Scope: An Early Childhood Care and Education Portal: All the content is visible to the visitors of the website; however leaving a comment or sharing of articles is restricted to registered members only. Our initiative is to create an e-space where the pioneer minds can meet and use it as a knowledge hub, initiate discussion on issues focusing on Early Childhood Care and Education. The key highlights of the sections of the portal include Discussion Forum, Education, Early Care, Children, Research ECCE, News, Events and Resources. Each section has a specific blog where focused discussions can be carried out.
The aim is to initiate discussions and contribute to an understanding of ECCE among all stakeholders and open doors to various perspectives. The forum can be also used to jointly advocate for policies that promote high quality services for children (under the age of eight years) and their families. We are also coming up with a new page for ECE trainers where they can find useful resource materials, PPTs and training videos.
‘First Years First (FYF)’ is an advocacy campaign, launched by CECED in July this year, which is committed to promote developmentally appropriate parenting-caring practices for young children. FYF aims to reach out to the parents-caregivers of young children and convey to them the critical importance of the first 8 years of a child’s life, which, according to the latest neuroscience research on the brain, set the foundation for all round development of the child for life, in all aspects of development. FYF’s message is clear and loud— give your child a head start for life! Ensure s/he gets an environment filled with child friendly and appropriate child care and early learning opportunities in the first eight years of her life.
The FYF campaign began in July 2013 with on line discussions with parents and caregivers regarding their queries and experiences with their own children. These online discussions were carried out on Facebook as well as on Early Scope, a CECED web portal dedicated to issues related to Early Childhood Care and Education. These discussions and the issues raised, pointed towards a need for an interactive face to face forum for interface of parents with experts in many related disciplines.
Early childhood, the foundation of all human learnings, spans from conception to eight years. As ‘learning begins at birth’, the environment, and within it the experiences, which foster the overall development of the child through care and early interactions in these earliest years of life Early years are central in every child’s life due to rapid brain development. A newborn’s brain is already 25 percent of the weight of the adult brain. In the first three years of child’s life, the brain grows to almost 80 percent of the adult size and within six years to about 90 percent. Thus establishing this period to be vital for formation of neural pathways for future development.
Research in neuroscience demonstrates that conditions in early childhood years, affect and set trajectories for health, behaviour and learning throughout life. They process a myriad of visual, auditory, sensory and social-emotional experiences in their interactions with the caregivers. Therefore, early stimulation has an important role to play in the establishment of multiple sensing pathways.
1. Two Day International Workshop on FINANCING INVESTMENTS IN YOUNG CHILDREN GLOBALLY, August 26-27, 2014
Center for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED), Ambedkar University Delhi in partnership with the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences organized a two day interactive international workshop featuring presentations and discussions that identify some of the current issues in financing investments across health, education, nutrition, and social protection that aim to improve children’s developmental potential. The two day workshop highlighted links among sources of funding, types of funding mechanisms and the pathways through which they operate with respect to maternal and child health, education and social protection outcomes.
1. Explore issues across three broad domains of financing, i.e.,
costs of programs for young children;
sources of funding, including public and private investments; and
allocation of these investments, including cash transfers, microcredit programs, block grants, and government restructuring.
2. Address how to incorporate outcomes into costing models of early childhood programs.
3.Identify possibilities of innovative models of partnerships, financing sources and structures targeted towards more enhanced, efficient and effective spending on young children.
4. Highlight the links among sources of funding, types of funding mechanisms and the pathways through which they operate with respect to maternal and child health, education, nutrition and social protection outcomes.
1. World ECE day: CECED’s support was solicited by UNESCO and UNICEF to plan and organise a full day event titled World ECE Day in April 2012, which was dedicated to children and ECE stakeholders to celebrate the spirit of childhood and advocate this age group’s needs. This was a major success.
2. South Asian Regional Conference (SARCON), 2012: CECED, University in collaboration with The World Bank, organized the SARCON on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) from August 27-29, 2012 at The Oberoi’s, New Delhi. The objective of the Conference was to bring ECCE into centre stage of policy level discussions, within and among the eight South Asian Countries at the regional level, and deliberate towards supporting governments to formulate a Regional Strategy for South Asia for ECCE. A total of 232 participants, including 62 speakers, attended the conference. These included representatives from seven of the eight South Asian countries viz. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The response in terms of participation for the conference was overwhelming. The Conference culminated in a series of recommendations related to a regional strategy as well as national goals and concerns in the form of a Delhi Declaration. CECED prepared and published a comprehensive report of the Conference.