– India invests in early education as part of a national strategy, as do Bangladesh, China, Turkey, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malaysia. These are good examples of an important and rather recent trend. The leaders of these countries are fully aware – perhaps more than their counterparts in more developed countries – how strongly the future of their citizens depends on early childhood education.
– Current Indian leaders have understood that serious measures have to be taken, starting even before birth and with a strong focus during a child’s early years – a period during which as much as 85 percent of brain development occurs. Let’s take a look at what is happening in India right now:
- A strong emphasis is put on children in rural parts of the country, in order to provide quality early learning experience for free.
2. A rising awareness that nothing is more important than a loving, caring, nurturing and knowledgeable mother to her child. The goal is to give mothers the information needed to make them their children’s first and best teachers.
- The people from the community are trained in order to allow them to work as teachers in early learning centers.
4. A better understanding that deficits resulting from a poor environment during the early years can be extremely difficult to reverse later.
5. The understanding that health, nutrition and education are interdependent.
In New Delhi, David Lawrence Jr., right, observes the activity in an early learning classroom with Venita Kaul, left, and teacher Saba Parveen
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