NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
PARENTAL OR POLICY MAKER MISUNDERSTANDINGS?:CONTEXTUAL DILEMMAS OF PRE-SCHOOLING FOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN MALAWI
By Foster Kholowa, University of Malawi, Pauline Rose, University of Sussex
UNESCO ? Education Today 2005?poor, illiterate mothers in Kenya?s Machakos District were vehemently opposed to sending their children to an early childhood development centre if it did not teach them how to read and write?. Parents? misunderstanding of what is at stake is symptomatic of a certain confusion that prevails about what early childhood care and development actually is??The ultimate purpose of early childhood services is to promote the holistic development of the child: his or her emotions, personality, and cognitive skills,? says Soo-Hyang Choi, Chief of UNESCO?s Section for Early Childhood and Inclusive Education. ?It should not be considered as an extension of primary education.?
The target of the first EFA goal is the expansion and improvement of comprehensive early childhood care and education, with priority given to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. It is generally agreed that provision of quality learning experiences in pre-schools can support children's future learning. However, in practice it has received extremely limited attention in international and national policy in developing countries, with provision relying on community-based and NGO initiatives reaching a limited range of the population.
With a move towards achieving universal primary education together with concern for low levels of performance and high dropout in countries such as Malawi, the focus is beginning to shift towards early childhood development (with the next UNESCO Global Monitoring Report focusing on this theme). Within this, debates are apparent between those who view education at this stage holistically with respect to early childhood development (ECD), with concern that it should not be directly linked with primary schooling; and those who view it more explicitly as contributing towards achieving universal primary completion by ensuring that children will be appropriately prepared for studying at this level.
Evidence from Malawi indicates that national policies are closely linked with the international agenda, with a focus on holistic ECD approaches. However, parents view pre-schooling in a narrower way, as an important step towards preparing their children for studying successfully at the primary level. Rather than considering this as parental ?misunderstanding?, this perspective shows a greater awareness of local realities. Parents see pre-schools as affording their children an ?education? that would eventually raise their future socioeconomic status and hence help them escape from poverty. As such, the evidence from Malawi indicates that there is a need for a more flexible understanding and adoption of the first EFA target, which address contextual realities. Moreover, while worthy claims are made of the link between pre-schooling and poverty reduction, many of the problems pre-schools face in practice mirror those of primary schools, which are further complicated by severe limitations of availability of facilities, reliance on community support, and lack of training of caregivers working as volunteers. Possibilities of scaling up provision to achieve EFA target in the way intended by holistic ECD approaches are very unlikely in the short to medium term. Such a focus is particularly relevant where it is unlikely that pre-schooling per se can support poverty reduction, but is likely to contribute to the influence of primary and indeed secondary schooling on poverty reduction.