The Launching Of ECE

Tomorrow will witness the launching of the Early Childhood Education  (ECE) project at Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association in Beirut, in collaboration with World Forum Foundation.

http://www.worldforumfoundation.org

 550 students, in addition to 30 teachers and 100 parents from three Makassed schools, will benefit from phase 1 of this project; with the hope that, during phase 2, this project spreads to all Makassed schools both in urban and suburban areas, and then to other Lebanese schools.

This project aims at raising the awareness on the importance of the early childhood phase due to the significance of this age group in education and in both human and economic development. ECE is a phase of high importance, never the less, it is underestimated by many worldwide.The latest researches and reports issued by international and local institutions stressed on the importance of early childhood phase and the utmost need to circulate its significance. Likewise,  statistics showed that the Arab region fell way behind in spreading the awareness on this prominent phase. This reality had been emphasized during the meetings that took place on the margins of the conference on Global Leaders for Early Childhood, held in Hawaii in May 2011 and attended by representatives of Makassed and of the Arab countries. So we found it a must to encourage decision-makers to allocate further attention to this age group.

The Expected Outcomes of our project:

a.     On the short term:

·        Raising the level of awareness on the importance of this age group in building the child’s personality

·        Enhancing the skills, abilities, techniques, and knowledge of the parents and teachers directly dealing with learners of early childhood

·        Adjusting the parents’ behavior and all those who directly deals with children and introducing them to activities that satisfy the needs of this age group

·        Ensuring the efficient participation of children and providing them with the necessary skills that would enable them to convey the knowledge to other children as well as to adults

b.     On the long term:

·         Ensuring  quality teaching to young learners

·        Raising awareness on the development of early childhood

·        Supplying the caregivers and especially teachers and parents with a number of techniques and strategies that would enhance the quality of care they are offering, in a way that strengthens the level of positive interaction with the youngsters and enriches the direct environment in which they are growing.

·        Providing children with chances of succeeding in their learning and achievement which would reduce the percentage of failure and dropouts in later phases, as confirmed by the latest researches and studies.


The project includes: awareness campaign, ECE calendar, training of teachers, meeting with parents, ECE Day, joint work with Unesco, and a conference.


It is important to note that AlMakassed has always been a pioneer in providing care for ECE, for instance the Child to Child program at Khadija Al Kobra, the Conflict Resolution progarm at Khalil Shehab, and the production of the learning series Toufoulati Kanzi, which was awarded last year.


We will be posting more news about this project, so the best is yet to come!