Transcript Slide 1

South Asian Regional Conference on
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policies
and Practices: Towards 2015 And Beyond”.
27 - 29 August 2012
Delhi, India
Teacher’s preparation: Bangladesh Experiences
Mohammad Mohsin,
ECD Specialist, UNICEF Bangladesh
Iqbal Hossain,
Advisor , Education, Plan Bangladesh
Some facts
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3600000 children
120,000 teachers
120,000 pre-schools
55 Primary Teachers Training Institutes
500 URCs
40 private training centers
Background
ECCD initiatives got momentum in Bangladesh in early nineties
lead by some I/NGOs with focus to develop a model of services so
the coverage was very limited.
Different organizations tried differently with their expertise and
experiences, with hardly any interaction and coordination.
However, because of the lack of experience and knowledge,
program designs mostly were dominant by research and
interventions of the developed countries
All organization’s focused on the marginalized groups and in
geographically disadvantage areas without a minimum basic
structure for primary education and an overall awareness on
ECCD.
These limitations pushed the organizations to start work with
community people and community resources.
Background- cont.
The front line service providers (caregivers & teachers)
were also from community with very minimum educational
background and understanding on ECCD.
Minimum child friendly physical structure and space,
materials, monitoring, supervision, training and continuous
capacity development support were huge challenges for
successful program implementation
Ultimately, it’s the caregivers or teachers who performed
the major responsibilities to make the initiative successful
despite all these limitations.
Teacher development for ECCE in Bangladesh
All organization’s focus was to develop the group of
caregivers and teachers professionally so that they could
smoothly run the services with quality.
Different organizations developed their own teacher’s
development strategy and package considering their
curriculum, intervention and background of teachers and
relevant staffs.
Teacher’s educational background
From grade VIII to higher secondary (XII years education)
Training structure
The generic structure of the teacher’s development initiative
Orientation on program: Duration 1-3 days
Basic Training: Duration 7-15 days (Residential) once at
the beginning
Refresher’s training: Duration Monthly 1 day or quarterly 23 days
Major topics and content of the orientation/training
Orientation: Mostly on overall program especially on operational
issues with rationale
Basic training: Three parts
1. Basic concept and theories on ECCD (15-20% of total
training time)
2. Program delivery ( 65-75% of total training time)
3. Community awareness, involvement and management
(10- 15 % of total training time)
Major topics and content – cont.
Refreshers training:
Hands on support to run the next month/quarter’s center
activities and support to overcome the challenges that
teachers face
Regular Monitoring and supervision:
On the spot support to overcome the challenges that
teachers face in the class room and use of materials (both
learning and administrative).
Some issues that make the journey difficult
The traditional and cultural believes in addressing children did not
properly matched with the program approach.
ECCD as concept , philosophy and interactive teaching learning
methodologies contradicted with traditional practice of one way
teaching process in the primary schools
As the caregivers/teachers represent the same society and hold
similar understanding, it was found difficult also to change their own
mindset, internalize the concept and act accordingly• Curriculum and design of the program was not properly at the
implementation level
• Maximum use of materials, flexibility in curriculum and
dissemination were not ensured
• Need based and individualized learning opportunity was not
properly utilized.
Steps to overcome the barriers-early 2000 onwards
Based on findings from local researches, engagement with
international technical institutes, professionals and networks,
• curriculum and materials including teacher training strategy and
modules had been revised by organizations.
• Investment on teacher training and professional development
increased.
• Trainers pool developed with trained and high profiled
professionals
• Advanced training courses developed , organized and imparted
for trainers to improve the teacher’s understanding and skills
• Interaction between different organizations on teacher’s
professional development started.
Steps to overcome the barriers-2
Institutional preparedness
Short courses on ECCD for manager, supervisor and teachers
developed and organized by
• Institute of Education and Research , Dhaka University,
• Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University;
and
• some private organization like Teacher Development
Initiative (TDI), Inner force, etc
ECD Resource Centre at IED, BRAC University established with
the support of Plan International Bangladesh
Professional and academic courses (Certificate, Diploma &
Masters course) began on ECCD, at ECDRC in BRAC University
Government’s involvement and initiative
From 2001, government directly involve in the ECCD sector
with a project called ECD. Meaningful partnership developed
between government and NGOs from the very beginning
based on NGO’s experiences in ECCD.
This is the first time that government and NGO both realizes
the challenge of developing teachers and professionals as
the coverage of government project was comparatively big.
This creates a platform to establish a network and start work
in a coordinated way to maximize the coverage and results.
Government’s involvement and initiative
Continuous advocacy, successful interventions form NGOs and
lessons learned form the lead project of the government form
the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA),
supported by UNICEF made the dream into a reality in 2008 to
have an operational guideline especially for pre-primary.
Approved by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education
• first gave preschool a formal shape
• it provides an outline of preprimary curriculum, materials,
operational modalities, teacher’s quality, capacity building
etc
• this is the first government document that gives a clear
direction of teacher training and professional development of
different level of staffs
• Taken into consideration of the NGO initiatives as well as
government’s primary education structure of teacher’s
professional development.
Government’s involvement and initiative-cont.
The context of PEDP3 (Third Primary Education development
Program)
Based on the Preschool framework, with political commitment
under New National Education Policy 2010, The PEDP3 decided
for PPE in all primary schools
• national preprimary curriculum developed and approved in
June 2011
• materials and teacher training package including monitoring
supervision and assessment mechanism are under
development process by the National Curriculum and
Textbook Board , a specialized government technical
agency.
• incorporated basic child development and learning issues
including pre-primary operation in Diploma in Education
Course (18 months course)- a compulsory course for all
primary school teachers under PEDP3
Achievement so far within an interim phase
Government (NCTB) with support form UNICEF, in collaboration
with experienced NGOs, developed interim pre-primary package
based on what around 40000 government teachers received 6
day basic training on pre-primary (under PEDP2 with TA from
UNICEF).
The primary teacher’s training structure was used following
cascade method to train all the teachers Selected PTI instructors,
experienced and interested DPE officials have been trained as
Master trainers for PPE.
A training strategy for pre-primary has been developed to train
pre-primary teachers using government primary teacher training
facilities
Based on the approved curriculum, development of competency
based teachers’ training package is under process, which will be
the mandatory training course for all pre-primary teachers
Way Forward
Government is under process of introducing pre-primary
education (PPE) through its 63000 primary schools.
New teachers for pre-primary will be recruited and put in the
system shortly.
Interested and preferably existing young women teachers will
also be used to run pre-primary.
To make PPE universal, GO-NGO collaboration a must and
guidelines in this respect have been approved
• both will work together for professional development of
teacher and other relevant staffs
• PPP for teachers training and capacity development to be
encouraged
• National coordination and Technical committee on preprimary to develop a professional development strategy
involving all stakeholders and using all types of existing
facilities.
Again the number facts
3600000 : Total number of eligible children for pre-school in a year
120000 : Minimum number of pre-school required to cover all children
120000 : Minimum number of teacher required to run pre-school
55 : Specialized teacher training centre for primary education
500 : Sub-district level resource centre for primary education
40 : Non-government facilities
Yes, the challenge is big but there is a
good start.
Collaboration and cooperation between
government, non government international
organizations, development partners,
donors , academic organizations and
private sectors is the major strength to
overcome the challenge
THANKS