UNESCO / EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE

UNESCO, which is holding the first World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), reported that large proportions of the world's children are denied access to the benefits of ECCE which in turn "locks children into a future of deprivation and marginalization." UNESCO

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:03
• Production Date: 28 September 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION - UNESCO
• Subject Topical: EDUCATION; HUMAN RIGHTS
• MAMS Id: U100928f

Description

STORY: UNESCO / EARLY CHILDCARE
TRT: 1:03
SOURCE: UNESCO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: RECENT / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – 2001, SOUTH AFRICA

1. Med shot, children in the street

FILE – 2006, INDIA

2. Med shot, child washing clothes

FILE – 2006, NORTHERN KENYA

3. Various shots, children at community learning center
4. Various shots, children at mealtime

27 SEPTEMBER 2010, PARIS, FRANCE

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ulrika Peppler-Barry, Education Sector, UNESCO:
"So early childhood can create a foundation for a life of expanded opportunity or it can lock children into a future of deprivation and marginalization. What we want to achieve with the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education is to draw the attention of all world leaders to the importance of the early years."

FILE – 2006, CHILE

6. Various shots, children at pre-school

Storyline

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is holding the first World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), reported that large proportions of the world’s children are denied access to the benefits of ECCE which in turn “locks children into a future of deprivation and marginalization.”

According to UNESCO, although progress has been made in pre-primary education since 2000, less then 20 percent of pre-school aged children are enrolled in Sub-Saharan Africa and Arab states. In Central, South and West Asia, the percentage of children enrolled is less than 40 percent.

Furthermore, early childhood is defined as a period from birth to eight years old. It is time of remarkable brain development, but also an extremely vulnerable time for young children, especially in the developing world, where a child has a four in ten chance of living in extreme poverty and 10.5 million children under age of 5 die from preventable diseases every year.

The World Conference, which concludes tomorrow (29 September), is taking stock of progress made over the past decade and identifies ways for countries to achieve the goal of expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for most disadvantaged by 2015.

Ulrika Peppler-Barry at the Education Sector in UNESCO said that the organization wants use the World Conference “to draw the attention of all world leaders to the importance of the early years.”

Ministers from 65 countries, along with experts, academics and practitioners of early childhood care and education are attending the conference, which is organized by UNESCO, the Government of the Russian Federation and the City of Moscow.