Teaching At Early Childhood Centers

Project at a glance:

“Learning starts from right at the birth. Child care at the early childhood development (ECD) program fosters a congenial learning environment for the children of 3 to 5 years to develop motor, mental, social and emotional skills.”

In Nepal, little effort is made to nurture and develop early childhood from the government and other sector. Childhood is the foundation of children for their development. Realizing the fact, the government has put some efforts. The government has encouraged setting up Early Childhood Development Centres (ecd) in the community. Due to scattered and rural village setting, the schools are not easily accessible for small children to go to schools and most children stay at home doing nothing. They do not have any play materials at schools or at home. The Nepal government has encouraged setting Early Childhood Development Centres at schools but does not provide required facilities and teachers. The teachers are not trained at the centers. They do not have child friendly classrooms and resources.

VIN therefore aims to equip school based Early Childhood Development Centres child friendly. We train ECD teachers to make their classes joyful and creative for children. We supply resources for the centres and encourage teachers to collect locally available resources.

VIN has also set up a Childhood Development Centre (ECD) at Panchmane Community, Jitpur, Kathmandu. We have 16 to 20 children each year; aged between 4-6 have been benefiting from this programme. We were able to construct a 3 room building in partnership with the local community for these kids and equipped with child friendly furniture and the materials. This centre has been implementing in partnership with District Education Office (DEO), the government unit, Panchmane community and VIN. VIN only supports 9 ECDs based on 8 schools and one community based -the centers are in the marginalized communities, shadowed by the development efforts. At least we need 350 US dollars for each centre to be well equipped. Any individual or organization interested to support anyway for this purpose is welcome. VIN is also planning to work for Early Childhood Development programmes in Okhaldhunga in near future.

What can a volunteer do at these centers?

• ECD volunteers can assist local teachers in their roles.
• ECD volunteers can teach children different motor skills and kinesthetic skills.
• ECD volunteers can play games and rhymes with children.
• ECD volunteers s can provide child care support.
• ECD volunteers can create resources for the children.
• Take the children to excursions.
• Do a variety of other activities.

Anybody who has strong interest to support children from the most marginalized communities and enjoys working with the kids. If you have been trained in Montessori methods will be an added advantage. Volunteers without skills also can apply since VIN provides essential skills before the placement at the centers

Major Activities:

• Raising awareness of parents of 3-5 year-old on developmental needs of children in their early years and practices to address them, achieved through orientation briefings and mass awareness raising campaigns.
• Supporting school/community based ECDs to strengthen their management and resources for autonomous functioning by 2012.
• Training of ECD teachers on ECD teaching (basic to advanced level) and development of local materials
• Training of ECD Management Committees on how to manage ECD centers effectively
• Designing a standard format of guidelines and ECD activities applicable to all ECDs of Jitpur Phedi, and ensuring its implementation and monitoring its progress

Significant Achievements to Date:

• In 2008, VIN established a community-based ECD Center at Panchmane with the help of the Community and District Education Office.
• From 2009, VIN started to work with school-based ECD Centers. Four Schools were supported with matching funds (1:2 ratio) to establish ECD Centers with child-friendly seating arrangements and educational and play materials in 2009. The ECD teachers were trained on ECD teaching/learning approaches in the same year by local staff and international volunteers.
• Matching funds support to establish ECD Centers was extended to two more public schools in 2010. Similarly, the community-based ECD center received support to construct its own building and make their classes more child-friendly. VIN established ECD center has now 3 child friendly rooms.
• The school-based ECD centers were further strengthened with the supply of more educational and play materials.

Many overseas volunteers participated this program and helped local teachers and participant children learn creative activities