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Within the broader domain of education, early childhood education is the most impor-tant period of a child’s development. Children are most vulnerable at this stage of their life, and any crafting of a promise, a programme, or communi-cation; must bear this in mind.
The idea of any intervention for children in the 0-5 age group, let alone formal schooling, is a relatively recent phenomenon. For many it’s about “playing around” or “merely nannying” while others are convinced that children should not be away from home and mother at this age.
Yet from a broader social perspective, early childhood care and education is arguably the best investment a society can make. There is a fair body of research literature and consensus about the important role a safe and engaging early childhood experience plays in developing productive and law-abiding citizens. The most popularly quoted case is made by Nobel laureate Prof. James Heckman, who stressed that while early childhood care may be expensive, it more than pays for itself over the life span of a individual.
In India, early childhood education is relatively new, and during the past decade in particular the sector has witnessed significant activity. Private entrepreneurs have rushed to create ‘brands’ and ‘franchises’ capitalising on the need and ignorance of parents. With a multiplying number of unitary families and more women going to work, pre-school is the preferred choice of double-income parents for their young children to play and learn. Add to that the pressure to secure admission into a “good school” and to “learn English fast” and the poor parent has no choice but to fork out relatively large sums of money for three-four hours of ‘education’ that may or may not be good for the child.
But from the viewpoint of parents who want the best for their precious pre-schoolers, the two most important aspects of early childhood care are safety and play. An essay in the Scientific American which quotes the research of psychiatrist Stuart Brown who spent almost four decades tracking people’s childhoods, including felons and convicted murderers, illustrates the validity of this assertion. Brown found that people who grew up to be maladjusted adults unable to cope with social stress had two peculiarities in their childhood: they were usually from abusive families and secondly, they didn’t play much.
The major conclusion of this study was that later-life achievement and happiness is not built on fast forwarding later-life activity for children. Each life-stage is unique and needs the special attention of trained professi-onals. The failure of ECE professionals to observe this rule can have unfortunate life-altering consequences.
Unfortunately, there is poor and at best limited understanding of what early childhood education is all about and its critical importance. For this to happen, educators, parents, and entrepreneurs, must come to a common understanding on what’s good for young children.
(Ashish Rajpal is the Delhi-based founder managing director of iDiscoveri Education)