La crisis del conocimiento experto: ¿apertura profesional?

In order to successfully scale up early childhood programmes, it is necessary for Cambodian society to have the necessary will (increase demand for and supply of programmes) and skill (ability to successfully implement and evaluate

programmes) to do so. It is clear from our observations and interviews with the various stakeholders that there is a great desire to have early childhood

programmes. This demand that already exists is the result of the successful dissemination of information about the positive effects of early childhood

programmes on child development. Government officials, international NGOs, the media and Commune/Village Chiefs should be congratulated on their success in promoting ECCE in Cambodian society. They have successfully conveyed the notion that the early childhood years are critical for cognitive, social and emotional development and that ECCE, which meets the distinct needs of children, can positively affect their performance in primary school as well as their self esteem.

There is clearly political will to scale up ECCE but this will must be

accompanied by clearly articulated policies and associated implementation plans in addition to the fiscal commitment which will ensure the quality of these programmes. Commune Councils should be encouraged to allocate resources to non-

infrastructure projects such as Community Preschools and parents should also pay a token fee for snacks in the CPS. If this is not possible, they should at least devote their time as volunteers or teacher helpers for the CPS 1-2 days per week. They can be recruited as teaching assistants to look after the hygiene and grooming needs of the children which currently consume significant amounts of the teachers’ time. They could presumably also be trained to play structured games and activities with younger children to stop them disrupting the older ones. Observing the CPS teacher interact and teach young children could lead mothers to adopt similar practices in their homes and is another benefit of parent volunteers. In short, parents should contribute to community preschools either in cash for snacks or volunteer their time to help the CPS teacher.

Our results show that just having either a CPS or HBP in the village had several benefits to the community. Further, our observations showed that CPS has strengths in several curriculum domains – for example the teaching of pre-numeracy skills and in getting children to sing with actions. We conclude that the teaching of pre-numeracy must have been very well taught in initial and continuing CPS teacher training programmes. Singing and dancing are enjoyable, no-cost activities and should continue to get attention in the curriculum. Indeed, interviewees mentioned that one of the advantages of CPS attendance was that children learned rhymes and songs. These skills are clearly valued by parents. If the same attention is given to other domains in teacher-training programmes (e.g., language and communication; social development, assessment of children’s learning), these aspects of the

programme are likely to improve.

We found that the physical setting of the CPS could be improved. In many cases, the CPS was held under the teacher’s house and not in a purpose-built or permanent structure. Young children are sensitive to both the physical and psychological environment and efforts should be made to enhance both these.

The advantages of HBP have been stated in earlier chapters. The recent introduction of the Calendar of Activities for 5- to 6-year-olds is a significant added strength of the HBP and is clearly appreciated by the core and group mothers. The importance of having systematic, easy to follow, illustrated curriculum guides for poorly educated mothers cannot be overstated.

Stakeholders explained the roles of the different ministries in the monitoring and supervision of Community Preschools and Home-based programmes. The MoEYS is responsible for providing technical support/monitoring and preparing the curriculum for all programmes. The POWA is responsible for community

mobilization and ensuring that the Community Preschools and Home-based programmes are actually functioning. The PLAU is responsible for the commune council budget for the Community Preschools. There was a lack of clear

understanding by some stakeholders about their roles.

There is a tremendous need for technical support at all levels of the system. The teacher trainers need more training as do the CPS teachers and core-group mothers. Commune Council officials and Village Chiefs also need more training in advocacy. In particular, there is a need for training in evaluation and monitoring of programmes for PoE, MOWA and PLAU staff and Commune Council members. Of some concern is the lack of a shared understanding among stakeholders about their roles in programme support and monitoring. For example, some commune council members said they provided technical support to programmes in addition to seeing whether the programmes were operating. CPS and core mothers of the HBP were also not able to distinguish the roles of officials from different departments and the reasons they were visited by them.

Our results showed that participation in an early childhood programme had significant and positive effects on children’s developmental functioning and

readiness for school. Participation in an early childhood programme at age 4 was the most important and significant predictor of children’s developmental functioning at post-test and maternal education significantly contributed to this prediction. This suggests that children should be provided with ECCE services from at least age 4. It is very important to note that children who attended programmes at age 4 also

attended programmes at age 5 and the cumulative influence of participation for 2 years contributed to their developmental functioning at the post-test.

Children from SPS did significantly better than children from CPS and HBP but there were no differences between the groups in children’s developmental functioning. While this would appear to suggest that there are no differences in the two programmes, we must interpret these findings in conjunction with the

observational data. Less than 70 per cent of enrolled children were present on the day that randomly selected CPS were observed. Parents and teachers told us that not all children attended the CPS regularly and we found that there were wide variations in the quality of the CPS. Teacher competence, community support, programme monitoring and technical support varied greatly across the programmes we observed. To obtain benefits from CPS, children must attend and the

programmes must be of adequate quality. On the other hand, mothers are highly motivated to support their child’s development and are always there. In the light of

the above, caution must be exercised in interpreting the findings of no significant differences in child outcomes between CPS and HBP.

In deciding whether to establish an ECCE programme in a community, several factors associated with the village and commune must be considered. However, regardless of whether a village decides to adopt a CPS, HBP or hybrid model, the process for decision-making should be the same. The diagram below shows one way of proceeding. Other models may be equally effective.

Figure 7.1

A Model for Establishing and Evaluating the functioning of ECCE programmes

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