UNESCO’s Regional Office in Bangkok, with key partners, has launched the first of a series of 9 videos documenting innovative and effective pedagogical approaches in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), with the aim of showcasing and disseminating practices that are unique to the Asia and the Pacific region.
“We wanted to showcase practices that are unique to the Asia and the Pacific region and video is really a powerful medium to demonstrate how such pedagogical interactions take place in practice; seeing is believing,” says Mami Umayahara, Programme Specialist, UNESCO Bangkok. She adds that UNESCO is currently preparing an online “guidebook” be used as a teaching aid with the 9 case studies, including the videos and narrative reports to.
This Innovations for Improving the Equity and Quality of Early Childhood Care and Education in Asia and the Pacific project, seeks to determine what innovative approaches are being used in the region and how they can enhance the principles of inclusion and equity in ECCE that are the cornerstone of the new global education agenda.
This first video chronicles one month at the Kaede Kindergarten in Hiroshima, Japan as students prepare for and participate in a box-stacking competition as part of the school’s annual Sports Day. The students are divided into two classes and are guided by their teachers as they try out new ideas in how best to arrange the boxes, delighting in successes and quickly learning and moving on from the string of setbacks. One important rule of the game is that teachers cannot give directions – all ideas must come from the children.
Early experiences lay foundations for life
The child’s early experience determines how well the brain matures and influences a broad range of skills and learning capacities, setting the foundation for a healthy and productive life. Children learn best when Early Childhood Care and Education is child-centred, play-based and collaborative; however, for this approach to be effective, ECCE teachers and practitioners must have the skills and tools needed to make it a reality.
Yet, ECCE is often underfunded despite the research evidence that quality ECCE is one of the most productive and equitable forms of educational investment. Intervening early requires few resources: fixing problems later is more expensive and less efficient to the individual and society. Given the competing priorities within the education sector, many countries in the region face the enormous challenge of expanding ECCE with quality and equity.
Thus innovative strategies and approaches are needed to expand and improve quality ECCE. There is limited research and systematic documentation of innovations in ECCE in Asia and the Pacific. However, case studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that innovative approaches to providing ECCE that respond effectively to unique circumstances do exist both at the policy level and in practice.
This series of videos is an attempt to bridge the evidence gap and share experiences across the region. The other videos, documenting experiences in India, Australia, China, Thailand, New Zealand, Nepal, Pakistan and the Solomon Islands, will be released later this year.
Innovative approaches to ECCE will also be the theme of the upcoming 2nd Regional ECCE Policy Forum: The Transformative Power of Early Childhood: Innovations for Inclusivity and Quality, to be held in Putrajaya, Malaysia in July.
*Videographer Mitsuru Jizodo shot this award-winning documentary that aired nationally in Japan. A segment of this production has been re-released by UNESCO Bangkok with English subtitles with permission from the Television Shin-Hiroshima System (TSS). It was funded by the Government of Japan and implemented in close partnership with the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC), the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) and the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF.
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