Early Childhood Services: Alternative Assigment

Last week my international contact did reach out to me about my blog, and the developmentally appropriate tools I use, but that was it. I replied back thanking her for contacting me, and began to ask her what type of early childhood programs did she have in her country and she never answered I thought I was making some head way but I guess I was not. I became so happy and excited about her contacting me, but it was over before I even got started, but I still reach out every week just in case.

I browsed the alternative website (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/). and most of all I found that other countries are facing the same problems we are facing here in the United States. Access, equity, and finances especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantage children it seems as every country is facing same issues, so I can safely say it is an early child epidemic that is  globally some countries worse than others. Nevertheless, some countries partner with other organizations because strength does come with numbers. I have a long way to go in browsing this site but has become one of the entries on my to do list after this journey

Access and equity

© UNESCO/Rocky Roe
Vulnerable children need equal access

The 1990 Jomtien Declaration for Education for All stated that learning begins at birth. A decade later, the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action reaffirmed the importance of early childhood by including the development of early childhood care and education as the first of its six main goals.

Participating countries committed themselves to “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.” Governments were particularly urged to expand equitable access to quality early childhood services underscoring the importance of instituting policy in favor of the poor.

Countries often promote alternative services for poor children with limited or no access to mainstream early childhood services which can be cost-effective and pedagogically innovative, but often raise concerns about sustainability and quality.  In cases where the government has limited resources, a pro-poor policy can redistribute resources by reducing state support for the more privileged.

Central governments must ensure an equitable distribution of resources among different populations and especially those who live in the most disadvantaged regions. This approach aims to expand access without creating serious regional inequities. However, where there is universal provision for a certain age group while the overall enrollment in other age groups is low, this policy can create inequity.

Privileged children of the target age group benefit from state investment, while poor children of non-target ages receive scant government attention. A policy of conversationalist with targeting can miniseries inequity where governments aim for universal access among the target age group, but simultaneously prioritize the poor.

Early childhood care and education programs should emphasizes on the child’s holistic development and extend beyond assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling. High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness.

There are no universally agreed criteria for quantifying ECCE quality but useful factors to consider include pedagogy materials, personnel training, service setting and parental education and involvement. Learning materials should be quantitatively, culturally and developmentally adequate and focus on child-centred interaction. Where appropriate curricula exist, there can be problems with implementation with the emphasis remaining on early primary education and preparation for formal schooling due to pressure from parents and the fact that it is easier for teachers than child-centred learning.

The ECCE workforce is often made up of a diverse group of pre-school teachers, care workers, informal carers and other professionals. Adequate training and work conditions are essential so they can integrate the content and practice of early childhood care and education and address the transition to formal schooling. The service setting and physical infrastructure may vary greatly within countries. Regular inspection and follow-up of the service setting as well as adequate health and nutrition components are also crucial for meaningful learning to take place.

Where government resources are limited, the last year of pre-primary education is frequently placed in a formal school setting or there may be efforts to lower the entry age. Such trends dilute the importance of holistic development by placing too much emphasis on preparing children for formal schooling. However, when pre-primary education cannot be afforded as part of early childhood, it is more strategic to consider ways of improving the pedagogy of pre-primary education placed in the formal school setting. Active involvement from parents and communities and relevant play and learning materials ensure that early childhood services remain relevant to the needs of the children and all other stakeholders and increases sustainability.

Investment and financing

The greatest difficulty faced by countries in their efforts to expand and improve the quality of early childhood care and education is the mobilisation of resources. This is particularly daunting in developing countries, where early childhood may be overshadowed by other pressing priorities, such as universal primary education.

Governments, if they deal with the issue at all, often approach early childhood from the context of national social policy or health services.

The 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA), stated that countries should view early childhood as part of basic education. Once countries recognise the positive value of state investment in this area, the next challenge is to mobilise funds. In general, government funding for early childhood is extremely small. For this reason approaching the private sector (non-profit and for-profit) can be an effective strategy.

 

Private sector involvement using a market approach may also ensure services are delivered more effectively. However, governments must use complementary financing measures to ensure equity of access for poor and disadvantaged children, as a pure market approach to increasing the level of early childhood provision has been shown to favour the privileged, who can afford the service.

Payroll Taxes for Child Development:

Lessons from Colombia

As nations develop early childhood development (ECD) policies and plans, they identify urgent priorities and seek to expand their investments in children. 1 ECD payroll taxes are one option for increasing private and public support for vulnerable children and families. This Policy Brief analyzes the history, achievements and challenges of Colombia’s 30-year old ECD payroll tax and provides important lessons for other nations. Brief history of the ECD payroll tax in Colombia With strong presidential support, Article 53 of Law 75 of 1968 established the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF), a semi-autonomous service agency affiliated with the Ministry of Health. 2 Headed by a Director and a Board, ICBF is administratively and financially autonomous and accepts private sector funds.

Its integrated services include: child care; parent education; protective services; and nutritional supplements for pregnant and lactating women, preschools and schools.3 since 1968, the health and education ministries have worked with ICBF.4 To guide service design, in 1972 ICBF specialists conducted the world’s first research project uniting infant psychosocial stimulation and parent education with health and nutrition care. 5 This project demonstrated that stimulation is critical to helping children from malnourished families achieve improved physical and cognitive development.6 This research and advocacy by Colombian nutritionists and labor leaders concerned about women’s and children’s rights increased demand for ICBF services, leading to Law 27 of 1974 that established a two percent payroll tax. In 1988, Law 89 raised the tax to three percent. 7 These laws authorize ICBF to collect monthly payroll taxes for ECD. All private and public institutions of all sizes must deposit three percent of their total payrolls each month into a central bank account managed by ICBF.8 (Employees do not pay the tax.) This account pays for ICBF’s direct services for children and contracts with NGOs and others to provide local services. 1 Vargas-Barón, E. (2005). Planning Policies for Early Childhood

Development: Guidelines for Action. Paris: UNICEF, ADEA and UNESCO. 2 Alm, J. and López-Castaño, H. (December 2003). “Payroll Taxes in Colombia.” Bogotá: Fedesarrollo. 3 ICBF has a decentralized structure with a national office, 28 regional offices, 5 additional departmental (state) agencies and 199 zone centers. 4 ICBF’s child care homes complement formal preschools of Ministry of Education and health services of Ministry of Health. 5 Collaborators: ICBF, Harvard School of Public Health, High/Scope, and Ford Foundation’s Office for Colombia and Venezuela. 6 Super, C.M, Herrera, G. and Mora, J.O. (1992). “Long-Term Effects of Food Supplementation and Psychosocial Intervention on the Physical Growth of Colombian Infants at Risk of Malnutrition,” Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development 1991, pp. 160-189. New York: Bruner/Mazel Publishers. 7 The ECD payroll tax is part of a larger package including two percent for National Training Service and four percent for worker subsidies.

ICBF’s ECD tax income for 2004 was US$540,547,000, yielding close to 0.6 percent of annual GDP.9 ICBF has begun to diversify its income by establishing agreements with 13 international and 26 national organizations that contributed approximately US$66,028,000 in 2004. Impacts of the ECD payroll tax

Despite continuing violence in Colombia, ICBF has achieved nation-wide geographic coverage. In 2004,

9,120,144 participants (21 percent of the population) received services. ICBF reported the following services: 􀁸􀀃 Community Child Care Homes served 957,238 children, about 50 percent of needy children aged zero to six.

􀁸􀀃 Parent education for 765,513 parents.
 􀁸􀀃 Nutritional supplements given to 726,500 women.

􀁸􀀃 School feeding services for thousands of children.

􀁸􀀃 Protective services for 1,107,409 children up to age 18.

􀁸􀀃 Reintegration services for over 1,400 child soldiers. A 1993 external evaluation showed ICBF programs strengthened families, expanded women’s employment, improved children’s cognitive and social development, and protected children but surprisingly did not improve their nutritional status.10 A 1997 external evaluation revealed ICBF programs protected children but needed to improve home child care environments, mother educator training, and child development, nutrition and health services.11 ICBF is now collaborating with national NGOs to improve programed quality, establish standards, refine food supplementation systems, and expand training and supervision. In violence zones and for displaced

Populations, ICBF mother educators help sustain families and communities.12 Mother Educators fiercely defend the ECD payroll tax and advocate for ICBF services.13 8 ICBF website: http://www.icbf.gov.co. (See administrative details.) 9 Informe ICBF presentado al Ministerio de Protección Social. (June 2005). Bogotá: ICBF. (Source of most ICBF statistics presented in text.) 10 Castillo, C., Orti􀒓z, N. and Gonza􀒓lez A. (1993). “Home-based Community Day Care and Children's Rights: The Colombian Case.” Innocenti Occasional Papers, Child Rights Series 3. Florence: UNICEF. 11 Primera Encuesta Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto de Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar. (1997). Bogotá: ICBF. 12 Informal communication, Acosta, A. Director, Bogotá Regional Office, International Centre of Education and Human Development (CINDE). 13 Urrutia Montoya, M., (1999). “El impacto de los programas deintervención para la niñez sobre el crecimiento económico y la igualdad.” Bogotá: Banco de la República.

  UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood N° 35 / NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2006

Most Colombians feel the payroll tax is beneficial and enables millions of vulnerable children to be served. Some Colombian ECD specialists believe ICBF should expand and improve its programs, offer home visits as well as center-based services, provide continuous in-service training, and improve evaluation and accountability.

Remaining challenges - Financial instability Income from payroll taxes rises and falls according to

National employment levels and economic crises. Also, some organizations evade their tax payments; however, with the help of the Attorney General of Colombia, ICBF recouped large sums of money that it was owed and needed to provide services.14 Income instability has made budget preparation and financial reporting difficult. Decentralization According to Colombia’s 1991 Constitution, ICBF should decentralise services, sending funds to municipios(counties) for them to administer programs for children.

The ICBF Workers Union strongly defends the payroll tax and rejects decentralization, fearing a loss of services and employment. 15 ICBF managers say they have not decentralized payroll tax management to ensure efficiency and accountability; however, they are seeking to further decentralize ICBF services by assisting municipios to improve comprehensive local ECD planning. Inter-ministerial competition

Several ministries seek increased funding and look enviously at ICBF’s payroll tax. This has exacerbated Inter-ministerial competition regarding ECD policies and programs. Colombia’s proposed ECD Policy should provide guidance regarding sectoral and inter-sectoral roles, responsibilities and coordination.

Private sector opposition some business people claim that payroll taxes keep them From increasing corporate profit. A few economic planners assert payroll taxes reduce employment, increase labor costs, and retard private sector development. 16 They suggest ICBF be funded “some other way” but propose no alternatives. Without the payroll tax, ICBF would cease to exist, resulting in millions of un-served vulnerable and violence-affected children and parents as well as thousands of unemployed ICBF workers. Many fear that if the “safety net” of ICBF services were to disappear, rates of

low birth weight, child mortality, morbidity, malnutrition, developmental delay, and abuse might rise rapidly.

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

The ECD payroll tax helped Colombia attain greater equity through expanding investments in vulnerable children. It also revealed that nationwide integrated ECD services are possible. A Colombian report stated, “The availability of a tax whose sole goal is the provision of programs for children and families has been one of the major achievements of the country. Because of this, in spite of fiscal crises at every level, ICBF has been able to maintain its programs and has even increased coverage in a manner consistent with national economic growth.”17 14 “ICFB y Procuraduría controlan pago de parafiscales.” (17 February 2005). Bogotá: Procuraduría General de la Nación. Over US$8 million dollars were recovered from 1,762 public entities. 15 Comments of Vicky Forero, President of the Union of ICBF Workers, SinBienestar, in Los retos del sindicalismo. (2001). Bogotá: Centro de Estudios del Trabajo (CEDETRABAJO) 16 Hispanic American Center for Economic Research, Weekly Latin American News Report by email, 2003. Some valuable lessons have been learned:

􀁸􀀃 the objectives, responsibilities and procedures of ECD payroll tax systems must be clearly specified in national policies, plans or legislation in order to prevent diversion to other uses.

􀁸􀀃 ECD payroll taxes should complement and not replace national education and health budgets for ECD.

􀁸􀀃 Monthly payroll taxes and their collection can be unstable. Nations should provide core funding for ECD services from national budgets to achieve stable service delivery.

􀁸􀀃 an efficient system of tax collection, management and accountability will need to be complemented by an effective system of decentralized services for children.

􀁸􀀃 Other government agencies will compete for the funds and try to divert them away from ECD.

􀁸􀀃 Private sector leaders may oppose ECD payroll taxes, claiming they decrease economic growth but by Building strong citizen support, they can be defended. Finally, to ensure ECD payroll taxes are managed well and achieve expected results, some countries may wish to develop a semi-autonomous institute, such as ICBF, to provide essential ECD services.

UNESCO’s activities in early childhood focus on upstream policy work through collaboration with government officials to review and develop their national policies affecting children from the age of 0 to 8.

As this age bracket covers a diverse group of children in various developmental stages, it is naturally difficult for countries to address all children within this group simultaneously and equally.

Prioritization is necessary. In this regard, UNESCO’s early childhood programmes focus on holistic pre-primary education for children over the age of 3, for which emphasis is placed on its linkages with primary education. It is important to note that pre-primary education must promote the child’s holistic development and should not be implemented like early primary education.

UNESCO also promotes two useful planning strategies to address the early childhood needs for those under three years of age—phasing and partnership. A phased plan can impel the education sector to eventually respond to the needs of younger children as part of its overall commitment to early childhood.

Partnership is another effective strategy. For instance, the social and health sectors are often more closely linked with families. If a partnership is developed with them, the care and education of younger children can be addressed together with those of older  children.

Partners

The Aga Khan Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation working primarily in Asia and East Africa, concentrating on selected issues in health, education, rural development and the strengthening of civil society.

Arab Resource Collective (ARC) is a regional non-profit independent organization working with partners in several Arab countries in various fields of development to produce resources and build capacities contributing to better childhood, health and education.

Association for Development of Education in Africa, Working Group on Early Childhood Development (ADEA WGECD) is guided by a consultative group composed of representatives from African countries encouraging and supporting national governments in Africa.

Bernard van Leer Foundation is based in the Netherlands and funds and shares knowledge about work in Early Childhood Development (ECD) to support programmes that create significant positive change for children up to the age of eight.

Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development (CEECD) aims at improving knowledge about the social and emotional development of young children and publishes the Encyclopaedia on Early Childhood Development, developed for policy-makers, planners and service-providers and parents.

Columbia University's Clearinghouse on International Developments in Child, Youth and Family Policies provides cross-national, comparative information about policies, programmes, benefits and services available in the advanced industrialized countries to address child, youth, and family needs.

Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development (CGECCD) is an inter-agency consortium with strong regional and international networks, working actively to identify gaps, critical issues and emerging areas of need and interest related to ECCD. 

Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) is an innovative approach which offers a unique training and capacity-building programme using distributed learning methods including the Internet, CD-ROM and video-conferencing as well as face-to-face seminars.

Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) serves as an open global network of members working together to address Early Childhood Development activities, care, health and stimulation needs of young children, the right to quality education and a safe learning environment in emergencies and post-crisis recovery.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provides financing, leverage, policy advice, research and technical assistance to carry out development projects for Pre-school and Early Childhood Education in 26 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

International Center for Education and Human Development (CINDE) is an educational research and development centre in Colombia with local, national and international projection, focusing on the healthy physical and psychosocial development of young children.

International Step by Step Association (ISSA) is an innovative network of early childhood development professionals and organizations primarily in Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia, working to make quality early childhood education accessible to all children.

Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private operating and grant-making foundation supporting a range of programmes in the areas of educational, social and legal reform.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have expert teams evaluate policy, programmes and provision for children from birth to compulsory school age.

Save the Children promotes a culture of caring and support for Early Childhood Development, with an emphasis on happy, healthy children ready to learn.

UNICEF’s work in Early Childhood is to support community and family care practices that impact the lives of young children including health and nutrition interventions and early stimulation and interaction.

Un Kilo de Ayuda is an NGO that provides a comprehensive programme aiming to eradicate early childhood malnutrition in Mexico. It evaluates children to determine their nutritional, health and development status, and provides communities and families with nutritional packages, education and other services to improve child development outcomes.

The World Health Organization provides global leadership on health issues, with a particular focus on improving maternal, newborn and child health and immunization campaigns for young children.

World Bank's Early Child Development unit helps countries integrate education into national economic strategies and develop holistic education systems responsive to national socio-economic needs and being conscious of the powerful economic and social justifications for early investment.

World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) is an international, non-governmental and non-profit organisation concerned with all aspects of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC).

 

Emily Vargas-Barón DirectorThe RISE Institute For other issues of the series, please

http://www.unesco.org/education/earlychildhood/brief

For comments and inquiries, please contact:

Division of Basic Education, UNESCO

7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 PARIS 07 SP, France

􀀌 33 1 45 68 08 12, fax: 33 1 45 68 56 26, earlychildhood@unesco.org

(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/)

 

 

 

 

 

Walden University M.S. in Early Childhood Studies

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Updated: 1.3.12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily Vargas-Barón DirectorThe RISE Institute For other issues of the series, please

http://www.unesco.org/education/earlychildhood/brief

For comments and inquiries, please contact:

Division of Basic Education, UNESCO

7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 PARIS 07 SP, France

􀀌 33 1 45 68 08 12, fax: 33 1 45 68 56 26, earlychildhood@unesco.org

(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/)