Early Childhood Education and Care (ECCE)

he latest research in neurosciences shows compelling evidence that early experiences affect brain architecture's development, which provides a strong foundation for all future learning.

 

The curriculum is central to unlocking the potentials of very young learners and, therefore, to achieving quality education as it articulates a society’s vision of education and provides avenues and spaces for transformation to define learning experiences. Consequently, it is more than ever essential to address early childhood curriculum as the unique window opportunity to create quality and supportive environments that support brain development in this critical period of life of the very early years.  In this regard, an ECCE Curriculum framework should be based on the following:

1. an evidence-based, developmentally appropriate one that shall address all children from birth to 8 years old, most specifically in light of the unique window opportunity of the first 1,000 days of life;
2. a continuous lifelong learning process that shall recognize children’s experiences, individual unique needs, strengths, interests, language, and culture within ECCE settings, preschools, and/or family environments;
3. responsive, supportive, and warm quality interactions reflected in curriculum frameworks and pedagogy in ECCE settings and home-learning environments so that children feel secure to explore and learn;
4. dynamic partnerships and engagement from different stakeholders, including professionals, families, and local communities surrounding the children; and
5. supportive whole-child approach with all-encompassing areas from social, emotional, language, cognitive, and physical development as being inextricably intertwined throughout the life course and lifelong learning process. 

To support the 2030 Agenda on education, UNESCO-IBE and Dubai Cares joined hands in 2017 to ensure quality and holistic ECCE by promoting its operational, multi-sectoral and integrated system in each country. This partnership led to the Project titled “Building resilient and sustainable ECCE systems,” whose overall objective is to build the capacity of Member States to develop, implement and sustain resilient, enduring ECCE systems to give children a fair start in life and provide them the opportunity of holistic development.



This partnership led to the elaboration of the “ECCE Series”, a set of publications that are an elegant collection of tools, policies, and good practices in early education, as well as the result of UNESCO-IBE’s activities in the field. The ECCE Series are working documents and instruments that inspire policymakers and professionals of the Early Childhood community to create better curricula and enablers with the final goal of giving children better opportunities in their early years. For more information, check out the ECCE website.