UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education (Week 7)

Exploring the UNESCO's website was a bit overwhelming. There was so much information to look at, seek out and learn from. I chose to only focus on the education tab with early childhood education sub-tab.  So from these tabs the three new ideas or insights I was able to gained about issues related to international early childhood education that relate to my professional goals include: 

Regarding education there is a new movement, The Education for All (EFA) movement. This is a "global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults" (UNESCO 2011). By 2015 there are 6 goals that governments, development agencies, civil society and private sectors are working together towards meeting. I think this is a great start to something phenomenal. It also ties into one of my professional goals to help children and their families the best education possible. It is refreshing information. 

Also under education there is an article regarding Mandatory Funding for Early Childhood Education in Brazil. Brazil currently has a mandatory education fund called Fund for the Development of Primary Education and Teacher Development. 60% of local governments budgets are spent on primary education hence the country is closer to universal education, benefiting all children and families. The country is now trying to implement the same conditions for Early Childhood Education. If this were to pass, I believe Brazil would be the staple of the world for others to follow in regards to addressing the important issue of equity in early childhood education. This goes alone with a goal of advocating for better funding for ECE programs. 

I also read an article on HIV/AIDS and how the cases amount 15-24 year old teenagers and young adults have drastically decreased. This is believed to be due largely to the amount of education that is being given at early stages in life. This leads me to wonder when is it appropriate to being to educate children on the importance of safe habits, particularly in other countries where the epidemic is so widely spread known and experience by small children. I am interested to know when the education begins and have there been studies done to show at which age shows the best long term results. The article goes along with a goal of educating children on the importance of healthy habits to help achieve a better quality of life as they mature and grow into the world. 

Reference:

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