Sadly, I still have not heard from any international contacts. I am completing the alternative assignment.
When looking at the UNESCO's website I saw that you could look at country profiles. I looked at Costa Rica's profile because I had originally tried to contact a professional from Costa Rica. I visited Costa Rica a few years ago and learned about how wonderful they are with Early Childhood Education. It is a compulsory, free and state-funded. WOO! Way to go Costa Rica. Data showed that 89% of children entering kindergarten had preschool experience. They also have instated universal health care, so all children have medical insurance. Costa Rica also provides daily care for working mothers living in poverty. I know Costa Rica is a much smaller country then the United States, but as I felt when visiting and now looking at their great work with young children, the US could definitely learn some things from Costa Rica.
I looked at an article discussing access and equity in ECE programs. There were some interesting facts presented. Forty percent of the worlds children attend preschool. Indonesia has 99% of its children attending preschool and Egypt has 48 %. Brazil and Mexico both have low percentages at 27 % and 10%.
While looking over the website I looked at the section on "Partners." There are around 20 different organizations that partner with UNESCO. Some are the more well known organizations like Save the Children and UNICEF but there are others like Early Childhood Development Virtual University which focuses on web-based learning and virtual seminars.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/),
I never heard back from my contacts either so I did the alternative assignment as well. I enjoyed looking into the website and I found a lot of interesting things as well. I enjoyed reading what you found to be interesting and hopefully we can have the opportunity to interact with our contacts in another class.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing what you learning for the UNESCO website, I believe that by looking to other early care and education systems in other countries lessons can be learned. We shouldn't have to rebuild something entirely when the framework is available. Early childhood professionals have to come together for the children.
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