Catching Them Early
NEPAL’S long educational strides over
the past decades notwithstanding, it remains a fact that education and care for the very
young ones remains an area where the strides are not that big. Jumps in literacy rates,
though quite remarkable, have not matched the results in the field of early childhood
development. The biggest attention in children’s education being monopolised by
primary schooling, it was left for only much later that more systematic thoughts were
given to taking care of children early on. Out of the realisation that some of the basic
rights of children have to be taken care of even before he/she reaches the school-going
age, early childhood development has come in the recent years to occupy a place for
intervention. As a result, many early childhood development centres have been established
across the country through the efforts of the government and non-government sectors. There
is now a general agreement that catching the young ones early and taking care of them in
terms of education, nutrition, health and other inputs goes to help in an all-round
development of children much better than just sending them straight to Grade I when they
reach the age of six. But early childhood care away from home comes with a cost that many
Nepalese parents are not able to afford, given the general socio-economic conditions. The
government, with help from other non-government institutions and organisations, have to
take a lead in further promoting early childhood development and setting up child care
centres.
Votaries of early childhood development could take heart from
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s assurance, made at the inauguration national
conference on early childhood development Monday, that early childhood development would
be one of the main subjects of the coming Tenth periodic plan. He disclosed that an early
childhood development national coordination committee was being mulled over too for
effective implementation of the programmes in this respect and coordination among related
agencies. The government and those engaged in this area must explore ways of further
popularising the concept and generating resources for it. Arguments in favour of early
childhood development must be more stridently made when budgetary and policy discussions
are being held at national or district levels. For, in a country where for example 53 per
cent of children are victims of malnutrition, early childhood development centres that
have a holistic approach to the physical and mental development of very young ones during
their most formative years must be emphasised as a priority.
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