Focus on early childhood education reforms

"Once upon a time, the tortoise was passing by the lion’s den," began five-year-old Chisom Ogbu. "The lion invited the tortoise to come in for some refreshments. The wise tortoise wasn’t fooled by the invitation and instead pointed out to the lion that it could see the footmarks of animals that had gone into its den but could see none of those that came out..." At the Umuchigbo Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre, on the outskirts of Enugu, the capital of Enugu State in southeastern Nigeria, it was story time once again. The over 80 pupils of the centre, aged between two months and five years, listened attentively. Though comprising three distinct classes, including children in day care, those in the playgroup, and four-to-five-year-olds in nursery one, all gathered together to hear folktales daily. "Everyday, just before closing time at noon, we gather them all together to listen to a folk story told by one of them in the nursery one class," Bridget Ayogu, the coordinator of the centre, told IRIN. Set up in January 2001 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Umuchigbo community, a small village of mainly peasant farmers and traders, with the support and approval of the government, it is part of a new initiative to give Nigerian children the best possible start in life. The Umuchigbo centre is one of 113 early childhood education centres set up on an experimental basis in 10 states in central and southeastern Nigeria with an estimated population of 28 million people. They now have a joint enrolment of 12,108 children managed by 459 teachers or caregivers. Designed by UNICEF in partnership with the Nigerian government, and run with non-governmental organisations, it is a new approach to early childhood education. It aims to combine education of children with lessons in health education, nutrition and sanitation for their parents. Nigeria is concerned that it currently has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in Africa, with about one if five children dying before the age of five. A study undertaken by the National Planning Commission (NPC) and UNICEF found that more than "90 percent of morbidity and 80 percent of mortality" in under-five children in Nigeria were due to vaccine preventable diseases, malaria and diarrhoeal infections. "Nigeria appears to have performed worse in reducing under-five mortality than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa," the study concluded. It is primarily to reverse the current situation that the new approach of establishing early childhood education centres in mostly rural communities, have been devised. The centres are set up and overseen by officials responsible for education, health, nutrition and sanitation at the state and local council levels, working with UNICEF. Communities deserving of such centers are identified through need assessment surveys (which focus on availability of health centres, percentage of women who have to take their under-five children along to their daily occupations, nearness of primary schools and general sanitation). "For communities where the nearest primary school is too far for the children to trek to, we set up ECD centres," Mgbechikwere Ezirim, the UNICEF project officer for education who oversees the project, told IRIN. "If the primary school is near, we set out classrooms there for the same purpose." Through advocacy and sensitisation visits, community leaders are first convinced of the necessity of the centres, and subsequently the idea is sold to the larger community. "From the outset the community is made to realise that the programme belongs to them, that others that might join are just there to assist," Ezirim said. Before the centres take off finally, training is provided for the teachers/care-givers as well as parents, other adults and children in the community. The health training usually covers adolescent health (up to pre-natal and post-natal care), immunisation, identification of childhood diseases, preparation of oral rehydration therapy and first aid care. Nutrition training focuses on alerting the community to the impact of nutrition on brain development, the importance of nutrition in pregnancy and exclusive breast-feeding when the baby is born, the sources of key vitamins and minerals, and preparation of complementary foods from local food sources. Through training on water and sanitation, the community is made aware of the sources of water borne diseases, and taught safe water purification and handling. The training also stresses psychosocial stimulation through stories, songs and outdoor playing materials. Trainees are made aware of the importance of age-specific playing materials and to recognise indicators of different stages of development. Apart from lessons in basic literacy and hygiene, the children are also encouraged to learn from their environment. For instance, the five-year-olds are encouraged to learn folk tales which they are required to present daily during story times. "The good thing about the centre is that it is not only the children who are learning, parents are also learning,” Chinwe Ogbu, a parent, told IRIN. "For instance most of us drank water from buckets into which we dipped cups to fetch the water. But now we’ve been taught how to fix taps on buckets into which we put filtered water and now take the water without dipping cups in the buckets anymore." Due to the success of the programme, the NPC has drawn up guidelines for its application nationwide under the UNICEF country plan for the years 2002 to 2007. Enugu State is among the first states in Nigeria to sign up for full-scale implementation through an agreement reached with UNICEF in August last year. "We are hoping that in due course the lessons from these schemes will begin to reflect in lower childhood mortality rates and children with even more vibrant intellect," a senior NPC official told IRIN.