How to Increase the Quality of Early Childhood Education (ECE) Programmes in Rural Bangladesh
PPP-4020, Global Early Childhood, Blog 2
The Situation in Rural Bangladesh
In rural Bangladesh around 48% of children aged less than five years are moderately to severely malnourished1. Malnutrition has been found to be a strong predictor of low cognitive and language development in Bangladesh6,8. Children that were found to have received stimulation together with food supplements exhibited better mental development in the long term3. Yet with all this information, parents are often uninformed about the needs of child stimulation to enhance their mental development4. This is where parent training programme comes in and fills in the gaps by providing parents with new information and new parenting practices. A survey found that half of the mothers in rural Bangladesh had no education and most were unaware of the importance of fostering curiosity and self-confidence in children5. Based on the survey, mothers also reported “giving their child nutritious foods” and “teaching their child to talk” as ways of promoting mental development. However, providing opportunities for play and conversation were rarely mentioned. Through home-observations and maternal recall, children were found to have spent many hours by themselves. Despite the evidence of children being malnourished and not receiving adequate stimulation, parents still want their child to excel at school.
Early Childhood Education Programmes
The need for high quality early childhood education (ECE) has never been greater. Some of the short- and long-term benefits for children that participate in high-quality ECE include: (a) better quality of life and healthy behaviours, (b) lower crime rate, (c) higher education attainment and (d) increased knowledge for mothers that participate in parent training programmes2. A substantial body of evidence has demonstrated the critical importance of the first three years of a child life and how development during this period may make or break the child’s future14. Brain development is heavily influenced by the experiences and interactions that the child has during this period, thus stabling the foundation for future learning7.
To foster (a) conditions that optimise child growth and development and (b) mother-child interaction for the purposes of stimulation and nutrition1. Parents need to be involved when targeting child development because their sensitive responsiveness is crucial to secure attachment and its multiple consequences10. With regards to children that are at risk for poor language and cognitive development, opportunities for stimulation and learning must be created at home if they do not attend pre-school1.
Services are aiming at taking a preventative stance by seeking not only to reduce the impact of risk factors on child development, but also to increase that of protective factors, by reinforcing the parenting role12. Weekly sessions are often conducted and headed by trained staff members called facilitators. These sessions are often attended by mothers. The topics that commonly discussed and taught to mothers include common diseases, hygiene, sanitation, breastfeeding and micronutrient deficiencies. Parents are also taught ways on how they can help with their child’s learning. On top of that, parents are also shown ways on how they can (a) encourage their child’s language development. Topics regarding positive discipline, gender equality and children rights are also discussed in parent training programmes. Although parenting practices are the main focus in parent training programmes, the main underlying focus is still to improve the health, growth and development of children.
Some of the characteristics of high quality programmes include provisions of a clear and structured curriculum, which includes demonstrations, rehearsals and repeated practice with feedback and ongoing supervision. Studies have found that training programmes have a higher chance of changing behaviours if they incorporate principles such as providing (a) information, (b) opportunities to observe role models, (c) practice the skills taught to them, (d) participatory problem solving and (e) a minimum of 14 hours contact13. These behaviour change strategies are also commonly used in parent training programmes (i.e. provision of information, advice, demonstration and community support)11. This study also found that, parents that participated in the parent training programme experienced enhanced social motivation to participate in activities.
How can the Quality of ECEs be Improved?
Some of the components that are necessary to increase the quality of ECE programmes include:
(a) Having a trained and stable workforce – Workforce plays a vital role when it comes to delivering quality ECE programmes. With regards to LMICs, the workforce will probably be made up paraprofessionals therefore, adequate training must be provided to ensure programmes can be conducted smoothly.
(b) Effective leadership – Quality ECE programmes should also be supervised under a leader. Relating back to LMICs, this would be in the form of supervisors. Supervisor will be expected to train and manage their paraprofessionals. This is by giving them adequate training and also providing an avenue to discuss problems that may arise while the programmes are being conducted.
(c) Age-appropriate curriculum – Programmes should also try to have age-appropriate curriculums. However, paraprofessionals or professionals conducting these programmes must also try to notice and see if any child is left behind in the curriculum or advancing at a greater pace than their peers. However, this may not be the case in some situations as some programmes are made to cater to a more general audience due to financial and staff constraints.
(d) Comprehensive and engaging activities for both parent and child that are attending the programme – In an ideal world where funding and manpower might not be an issue, programmes should be very comprehensive and very engaging for both the parent and the child. Though, this is not the case when programmes are implemented in LMICs. However, to a certain degree, parents and children do find the activities engaging. This is displayed through the benefits that both parent and child experience after attending the programme.
(e) Adopting a continuous quality improvement system – Programmes must monitor, reflect and revise practices and policies to ensure that quality is maintained. Besides measuring children’s developmental and wellbeing outcomes, programmes can also assess how each staff member is performing and use the data collected to make necessary improvements.
Conclusions
(a) Around 48% of children living in rural Bangladesh are found to be moderately to severely malnourished and parents are often uninformed about the mental development needs of their child
(c) The need for quality ECE programmes have never been greater as several studies have reported both parent and child reaping short- and long-term benefits
(d) One of the goals of ECEs is to reduce the impact of risk factors on child development and to increase the protective factors, this is done through the involvement of both the parent and the child
(f) Methods of improving ECE programme quality include having (a) a trained and stable workforce, (b) effective leadership roles, (c) curriculum catering to all age groups, (d) comprehensive and engaging activities for both parent and child and (e) a continuous quality improvement system
Reference used:
- Aboud, F. (2006). Evaluation of an early childhood preschool program in rural Bangladesh. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21(1), 46-60. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2006.01.008
- Garcıa, J. L., Heckman, J. J., Leaf, D. E., & Prados, M. J. (2017). The life-cycle benefits of an influential early childhood program. University of Chicago, Department of Economics.
- Grantham-McGregor, S., Walker, S., Chang, S., & Powell, C. (1997). Effects of early childhood supplementation with and without stimulation on later development in stunted Jamaican children. The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, 66(2), 247-253. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/66.2.247
- Guldan, G., Zeitlin, M., Beiser, A., Super, C., Gershoff, S., & Datta, S. (1993). Maternal education and child feeding practices in rural Bangladesh. Social Science & Medicine, 36(7), 925-935. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90084-h
- Haider, S. J., Ali, M., Chowdhury, S., Kabir, M., Akhter, R., Islam, N., & Paul, D. (2001). Baseline survey of caregivers kap on early childhood development in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Research Evaluation Associates for Development (READ) for UNICEF Bangladesh.
- Hamadani, J., Huda, S., Khatun, F., & Grantham-McGregor, S. (2006). Psychosocial Stimulation Improves the Development of Undernourished Children in Rural Bangladesh. The Journal Of Nutrition, 136(10), 2645-2652. doi: 10.1093/jn/136.10.2645
- Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, “InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development” (2007). Retrieved 1 March 2020, from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-science-of-ecd/
- Huda, S., Grantham-McGregor, S., Rahman, K., & Tomkins, A. (1999). Biochemical Hypothyroidism Secondary to Iodine Deficiency Is Associated with Poor School
- Achievement and Cognition in Bangladeshi Children. The Journal Of Nutrition, 129(5), 980-987. doi: 10.1093/jn/129.5.980
- NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1997). The Effects of Infant Child Care on Infant‐Mother Attachment Security: Results of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. Child development, 68(5), 860-879.
- Penny, M., Creed-Kanashiro, H., Robert, R., Narro, M., Caulfield, L., & Black, R. (2005). Effectiveness of an educational intervention delivered through the health services to improve nutrition in young children: a cluster-randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 365(9474), 1863-1872. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)66426-4
- Rodrigo, M., Almeida, A., Spiel, C., & Koops, W. (2012). Introduction: Evidence-based parent education programmes to promote positive parenting. European Journal Of Developmental Psychology, 9(1), 2-10. doi: 10.1080/17405629.2011.631282
- Sweet, M., & Appelbaum, M. (2004). Is Home Visiting an Effective Strategy? A Meta-Analytic Review of Home Visiting Programs for Families With Young Children. Child Development, 75(5), 1435-1456. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00750.x
- Yoshikawa, H., Weiland, C., Brooks-Gunn, J., Burchinal, M. R., Espinosa, L. M., Gormley, W. T., … & Zaslow, M. J. (2013). Investing in our future: The evidence base on preschool education.
Think of the Children 
Hi Anugerah,
Thanks for your blog. I was surprised to read about the survey detailing the low education levels with mothers of young children in Bangladesh. This alludes to how poverty is intergenerational, and how programs seeking to educate primary care givers offer a unique way to address the long-term effects of poor education among parents. I often think about care giver interventions as operating separately from pre-primary and primary education, but you section on creating opportunities for cognitive stimulation made me realise how in reality there is likely to be overlap. This overlap make primary care givers realise with more gravitas the importance of their children attending pre-primary education, in spite of economic and environmental factors that make attendance difficult. Adding to your point about how age appropriate curriculum delivery ensure quality, so to does curriculum’s that are evidence based. In my blog research, I found that pre-primary teacher’s in Pakistan still sometimes use rote learning as a predominant mode of education, despite our modern understanding of a child’s development being more complex than developing a memory of knowledge. In my blog I explores how this is due in part down to a lack of adequate teacher education, and can be addressed investments in more thorough and evidence-based and thorough teacher training. Thanks for your blog,
Ben
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I really liked reading your interesting blog. You did a good job. Your choice of children in Bangladesh is interesting. Because often parents of these children are less educated and unfamiliar with the basics and need to stimulate their mental development. I also agree with you that the benefits of early childhood education programs are benefits not only for the short term but also for the long term. The child’s growth at this stage, from 0 to 5 years old, is the foundation for the future. As for how to improve the quality of ECEs, I liked the fact that you shed light on the school curricula and your focus on the difference between children even in one age group, we must take into account that although they are one year old, each child is different from the other in progress and study. It is a good idea to offer comprehensive parenting programs and activities as parents are usually the primary caregiver of a child in the first few years of life, but in low and middle-income countries, parents may not have the skills or resources to provide appropriate care. As a result, there is growing evidence that support from parent training programs helps to improve responsive parenting, which in turn leads to increased child development
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Hi Anugerah,
Your blog is well structured and clear.
I found it interesting that you choose Bangladesh as an example. This show perfectly how the diverse domains of Global Early Childhood are linked. This illustrates how the mothers’ level of education impacted greatly the child’s well-being in general. However, the intervention targeted both the parents and the child, ensuring greater and sustainable outcomes. Parents’ engagement is the ideal in every early childhood stimulation programme as parents are the principal caregivers during the first months/ years of a child’s life, before teachers take over. The better and the more positive the interaction, the greater the impact on the child socio-emotional, cognitive, health levels on the child. Targeting parents and child seems to have a double positive impact.
Similar to educational intervention such as the centre-based ones, the need to train the deliverers, developing a good child-focused content, with a maintained monitoring and supervision are also essential for a parenting programme.
The ingredients for developing a high-quality programme in Global Early Childhood domain are various as you listed, but they are closely intertwined and interact with each other. As an example, supervision and a quality improving system are closely linked to each other. To ensure that quality is provided and maintained, it needs the involvement of each actors at the local, regional and national level.
Good job.
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Hello. I like the way you begin this blog by providing a specific number and details of The Situation in Rural Bangladesh. This illustrates just how critical the standard of an early childhood education system is for behaviour. I discussed with same points in my blog that a growing body of evidence has shown the vital value of the first three years of a child’s life and how growth during that time will improve or hinder the future of the child. Brain development is strongly influenced by the children’s experiences and interactions during this time, which lays the foundation for future learning. I like how you discussed the methods to improve the quality of early childhood program. Effective leadership is critically important, but not many people mentioned it. Quality ECE systems under a chief should also be monitored. This will be in the form of supervisors with respect to LMICs. The supervisor will train and handle his paraprofessionals. This is by adequate preparation for them and also through offering a forum for addressing issues that may occur during the programmes. Otherwise, I agree with you that “Age-appropriate curriculum, Comprehensive and engaging activities for both parent and child that are attending the programme, Having a trained and stable workforce, Adopting a continuous quality improvement system,” is essential for the quality of early childhood program. All in all, I love your blog and enjoy reading it.
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