Content Childhood Development

Inputs for content writing for ECD Project - Ministry of Women and Child Affairs
1. Home
Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector in Sri Lanka
 Early childhood is from the age 0-5 years
 The project focuses on children aged 3-5 years.
 This is a crucial stage of a person’s life
 According to unofficial reports there are approximately 17,500 preschools and around
29,340 preschool teachers in Sri Lanka
 Most of the preschools are owned by the private sector
 There are many issues faced by the preschools. Such as,
 Poor quality of physical facilities and inputs
 Poor quality of ECD teaching force
 Inadequate national standards and compliance monitoring system for quality management.
 Child under nutrition
 Inequitable access
 Public expenditure on education on ECD sector was considerably low
Early Childhood Development Project

 Background – Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, Children Secretariat
 Project span
 Coverage and outreach
 Project cost
 Partners
 PMU
 Organizational Chart
 The objective of the project is to enhance equitable access to and improve the quality of ECD
services.
 The progress of the project objective will be measured through
 Children enrolled in ECD centers;
 ECD centers meeting national quality standards, including plantations sector and;
 ECD centers conducting annual child development assessments.
 The primary beneficiaries of the project are ECD teachers, teacher assistants, trainers of ECD
teachers, ECD Administrators.
 The project will focus on
 Developing/ reviewing policies, systems and structure of ECD
 Enhance access to ECD
 Quality improvement of ECD
 Capacity building on monitoring and regulation of ECD services
2. What we do
2.1 Provincial Resource Centers
The project will support the development of ECD resource centers (that would include library and
other resources to support ECD practitioners) at the provincial level by upgrading or extending
existing facilities. These resource centers may also include facilities for conducting small
workshops and training programs, and will be linked with specific ECD centers which can be used
as model centers for good ECD practices.
The ECD center will be selected by the relevant ECD authority in each designated Province. This
will be an existing ECD center.
2.3 Provision of Teaching-Learning Materials to ECD Centers

 The project will support the provision of age-appropriate, high-quality teaching-learning
materials to both state- and non-state-run centers across the country.
 The project will identify a list of essential educational materials for ECD centers.
 The project will support the provision of age-appropriate, high-quality teaching-learning
materials to both state- and non-state-run centers across the country.
 These materials include durable wooden toys, blocks and shapes, different types of puzzles,
shapes, and measuring devices such as scales and clocks. Using this list as the basis, the
project will prepare a standard package of play-oriented educational materials for
distribution.
 In addition, the project will also identify a list of around 100 age-appropriate picture books,
storybooks and other reading materials that will be distributed to ECD centers as a package.
This reading package, which can include board books, cloth books, and ordinary paper books,
will be made available in Sinhalese, Tamil, English, or in a mix of languages.
 The provision of teaching-learning material will initially be restricted to centers eligible to
receive facility improvement grants.
2.4 Capacity Building Plan for the ECD sector

 The project will support the development of a comprehensive capacity building plan that will
cover training plans for different stakeholders namely, trainers, teachers and teacher
assistants in Early Childhood Development centers and primary schools.
 To meet the requirements under the capacity building limb the project will;
 Consultation with the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUL), National Institute of Education (NIE),
ministries of Education and Health, PHDT and key resource agencies that will play a role either in
the development of the trainings or their implementation, and defining their roles and
responsibilities in the plan
 Detailing the structure of the different training programs and the phased approach for delivery of
trainings at the national, provincial and divisional levels. Geographical areas with higher share of
untrained teachers will be prioritized for the training programs
 Outlining the functions of the Project Implementation Unit in overall management (including
monitoring and reporting) and coordination of the training programs
 Development of a Management Information System (MIS) to track all types of training that will
be conducted.
2.5 Long Term Training

 The project will support long term training of ECD teachers and teacher assistants through
one year certificate and two year diploma courses on ECCD/ preprimary education.
 Ministry of Women and Child Affairs (MWCA) will select government universities and
institutions that offer certificate and diploma courses. The selected institutions will enroll the
successful applicants for the courses.
 PHDT will conduct its own 6 week diploma course which will be implemented over 6 months
for teachers in the plantation region.
 Full tuition scholarships will be provided to qualified and financially needy teachers and
teacher assistants on a competitive basis to pursue certificate and diploma programs. The
project will pay the selected beneficiaries’ tuition fees directly to the educational institutions
in which they are admitted and enrolled. Around 500 ECD teachers and teacher assistants
will be supported during the project period.
 The courses will be conducted for in-service and newly recruited teachers and will be offered
in all provinces across the country. The eligibility criteria for the certificate and diploma
courses will include age and academic/ professional qualifications as prescribed by the
institutions running the courses.
 Qualified and financially needy teachers will be selected by the Scholarship Review
Committee for full tuition scholarships to certificate and diploma courses. The Northern and
North Central provinces, particularly, Uva, Central, Northern and North Central provinces
with the highest number of untrained teachers, will be prioritized for training programs.
 Upon the completion of the program the project aims to,
 Complete certificate and diploma courses by at least 500 teachers and teacher assistants by the
end of the project period, and interim annual targets met
 An MIS that tracks individual teachers through their certificate and diploma courses till
completion, and separately tracks scholarship awardees
2.6 Short term Training

 The project will support short term (week-long) training of teachers and teacher assistants of
ECD centers.
 Through an MOU signed with the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, the OUSL will develop
a week long standardized and certified training module. The short term training will be
organized and delivered at the divisional level by ECCD officers with the support of resource
persons and key stakeholders including from the Non-Government Organizations and private
sector working on ECD in Sri Lanka.
2.7 Training of Trainers (ToT) for short term training of ECD teachers and other training activities
 The objective of this activity will be to train a pool of trainers to deliver short term training to
teachers in the ECD centers across the country.
 The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) in partnership with the National Institute of
Education (NIE).
 The project will fund the development of the TOT packages and delivery of the training of
trainers. The project will also support specialized TOTs that focus on children with special
needs.
 For this selection will be done through a competitive process conducted and reviewed jointly
by the OUSL and NIE.
 PHDT will develop its own short term training package in consultation with the CS, OUSL and
NIE.
2.9 Parental Awareness

 The project will support the development of standardized program modules for parent
awareness on holistic childhood development, information about and enrolment in ECCD
centers and enhancing parenting practices and behaviors.
 It will also support the regular delivery of these programs across the country.
 The project will support the development of the modules and materials, as well as the
delivery of the awareness programs for parents.
 Under this following will be delivered;
 Standardized modules, teaching learning materials, resource materials ready.
 At least 1,200 awareness programs conducted by MWCA, Provincial Councils and ECCD centers
by the end of the project period.

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Inputs for content writing for ECD Project - Ministry of Women and Child Affairs

Early Childhood Development Project

2.3 Provision of Teaching-Learning Materials to ECD Centers

2.4 Capacity Building Plan for the ECD sector

2.5 Long Term Training

2.6 Short term Training

2.9 Parental Awareness

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