Consequences of Learning about International Early Childhood Issues & Trends

As we round the eighth and final week of this course, it is important to reflect on the assignments that dealt with international contacts and issues. One of the first things that the previous assignments helped me to see are the similarities and differences in the early childhood field among different countries. For example, early on I researched the country of India; a country that faces high populations living in poverty and forces children to work rather than focus on education
(http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo#11).  Poverty is also relevant in the United States as more and more families struggle with affording quality childcare. One does not realize the similarities between countries until researching the issues more closely as we have in this course.

Secondly, researching international policies regarding early childhood can help one make important professional contacts to work together with. Although I did not have any luck in hearing back from international contacts, I look forward to pursuing this in the future in order to gain more knowledge about the issues in our field. It is my opinion that one can never have TOO MANY resources in our field as there is always something new to learn about.

Finally, international resources can help the United States to improve the quality of education. Using other countries' guidelines and standards may help the U.S. to find solutions faster to the problems the country is currently facing. It can always help to look at other studies especially in the creation of standards for improving early childhood education. To look at the similarities in what the NAEYC requires versus other countries might help to create more thorough standards on a national level.

One goal for the field of early childhood regarding international issues would be to visit another country and attend a workshop or conference to identify and relate to others in the field. It would benefit educators to see how others respond in the field to issues that we have learned about in this course. For example, how do European countries provide affordable early childcare to the families that may be experiencing close to poverty conditions? These are questions that could be looked at on an international level and researched as well. 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

           Well, another week has passed and I have yet to hear back from any of the international contacts including the professional that I e-mailed from the podcast. So today I write about childhood poverty in the country of India (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP), 2001).

Facts About Poverty in India:

India contains most of the people living in poverty in South Asia (CHIP, 2001). It is estimated that 62 million children under the age of 5 are malnourished and a high percentage (34%) of newborns are born underweight. Another important factor in children’s education is that India still holds the highest number of working children in the world. Over 30 percent of children under age 16 are working rather than attending school. 

What is India Doing to Prevent Poverty?

            The main government has three programs to help combat poverty in the country. There is job creation and infrastructure, food banks, and assistance in self-employment (CHIP, 2012).  The largest program is the food bank as India has high numbers of malnourished families. Also mentioned in the research was a program called the Integrated Child Development Services Programme. According to India’s Government website (2012), this program assists in the nourishment and vaccinations of children from birth to age 6. You can read more about the program here: http://wcd.nic.in/icds.htm.

Reflecting on Poverty in India:

            It is alarming to see such high numbers of poverty and more so the number of children not receiving an education. It is sad to me that children in India are not provided the same opportunities that children such as myself were able to experience in a preschool program and then primary school. I hope that one day more programs will be implemented in India to support early childhood programs and attendance in school. No child should be forced to work even at 16 years of age. A child should be able to focus on their childhood and schooling.

References:

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP). (2001).  India. Retrieved January 20, 2012 from:  

     http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo#11

Integrated Child Development Services. (ICDS). (2012). Integrated child development services (ICDS) scheme. 
     Retrieved January 21, 2012 from: http://wcd.nic.in/icds.htm