United Nations and Early Childhood Education

This week I have been struggling with the idea of quality in early childhood programs. As a nation we the United States has not developed an agreed upon standard that defines quality in early childhood education. If we as a developed nation can not agree what quality care looks like how can we help develop policies and support developing countries in providing quality early care and education. The United Nations has a website dedicated to Early Child Care and Education at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/.

The United Nations website discusses the lack of a universally agreed upon criteria for quality in early care.The greatest hindrance for including the United States in increase access to quality care bringing together resources both public and private to support services as is the case in Singapore, where most preschools are run by for-profit corporations and registered with the Ministry of Education that provides support for low income families. Most children in grade 1 in Singapore have had at least one year of preschool. There needs to be some degree of collaboration between the public and private sectors.


While exploring the United Nations website I came across a policy brief that really made me think about how we determine the value we place on early care and education. The Brief entitled What is your image of the child? discusses how our view on children shape ideas and policies on early childhood education. If we don't view the child as whole, able, and complete then we approach early care different and place lower value on the investment of early care. 

I do feel that the view of early care is changing around the world, but it needs to start in the field itself. Teachers need to look at what their views of children are and the value they place on children and early childhood education. If we view ourselves as more than mere babysitters, then we will raise the quality in our own classroom and then we can begin to change the field.