Review of early childhood care and development

by Ranil Wijayapala

The Children’s Secretariat under the Child Development and Women’s Affairs Ministry will review the 10-year-old national policy on early childhood care and development to meet its current requirements and the priorities.

Child Development and Women’s Affairs Minister Tissa Karaliyadda will brief the representatives of government agencies and Non Governmental Organisations working on early childhood care and development on the importance of reviewing the national policy and the need to formulate a working plan on early childhood care and development.

Minister Karaliyadda said that his Ministry has received many complaints about the pre-schools which are adopting syllabi and activities not recommended for pre-school students.

“Although our Ministry has given clear guidelines in the teachers’ guidebook for pre-school education some pre-schools arbitrarily adopt their own syllabi and try to complete the grade one syllabus in the pre-school itself”, Minister Karaliyadda said.

He said although early childhood development centres are mushrooming in the country they lack the basic facilities and standards and some pre-schools do not have even a play area for children which is a prerequisite for pre-schools.