Why Early Childhood Education

WHY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

A child’s experience in preschool is known to have a life-long impact on their attitude towards school and learning (and therefore an impact on their future success). An environment that fosters cognitive development; that encourages the child to learn how to learn; and that nurtures the child’s discovery of the world will prepare the young child for later learning.

Scientific research on preschool age children has shown that:

• their brains undergo significant development,
• their experience and learning affect the structure and organization of their brains,
• their brains grow most as the result of complex activities, not from simple skill learning.

Adapted from TEACHING CHILDREN MATHEMATICS, Doug Clements, Copyright © 2001 The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc.

Until now, the emphasis in Early Childhood Education in Burkina Faso has been to focus on directed learning activities, workbooks, and large group instruction. The children are too often bored, not engaged, fall asleep or get into trouble…. Very little attention has been given to developing a child- centered curriculum that encourages independent self-directed learning.

REPT, through its Building Blocks Burkina initiative, aims to improve the quality of preschools by providing material and knowledge that will create an atmosphere of learning through discovery, manipulation and exploration – this is the world of the preschool child who will develop into a capable learner.