This section of the website looks at comparing various aspects/themes in Early Years Education in England and Uganda.
Comparison of Early Years Education in England and Uganda
Structure of the Early Years Education System
Jemma Armitage
In this comparative writing, I aim to compare the early year’s education in Uganda and England. I will be focusing on enrolment and the issues surrounding early year’s education in both countries. I will aim to compare the two structures impartially and evaluate the correspondences and variances concerning the systems.
Firstly, this paragraph will focus on the enrolment in early year’s education in England and Uganda. Primarily, Uganda has a low intake for early years education, this is reflected in the statistic for 2010 that only saw 14% of the relevant age group enrol into a pre-primary setting (Data.worldbank.org, 2014). This could be due to early year’s education having a lack of funding and support from the government in Uganda (Newsvision.co.ug, 2012). In comparison, early years education in England has a high enrolment with 84% of children of the relevant age are in pre-primary environments (Data.worldbank.org, 2014). This may be due to early year’s education being copiously advanced and the use of statutory standards that all early years providers must achieve (Gov.uk, 2013). Flagrant comparisons appear between England and Uganda’s enrolment levels. England grasps a high rate of enrolment in early year’s education and the Government plays a role in improving and funding early year’s education. Whilst Uganda’s system does not even influence a quarter of its children and the Government is not providing substantial funding to improve the quality of early year’s settings.
Additionally, this paragraph will provide an insight to issues surrounding early year’s education in England and Uganda. Early year’s education in Uganda can be seen to be affected by the poverty of the population. According to Klaus Deininger (2003), education is a significant and invisible investment, and poverty can constitute an impediment to acquiring education, for example because of credit constraints. This information allows the interpretation that many children do not have access to early year’s education due to their families being incapable to provide the money or time to take their child to these settings. In contrast, early year’s education in England may not be truly benefiting the children. According to an article in the Guardian, ‘ministers in England persist in viewing it simply as a preparation for school. The term 'school readiness' is now dominating policy pronouncements’ (Malik, 2013). The article also provides us with the information that children no longer play but simply prepare for further education. Comparisons between England and Uganda are drawn on matters surrounding early year’s education. England may be damaging its children by not allowing learning through play. Whereas in Uganda parents cannot offer the time or money to send their children to early year’s settings.
Overall, early year’s education in Uganda and England are at different phases. The system in Uganda is in need of funding and evolving, whereas in England the system is fully developed. However, both schemes can be seen to be failing. Early year’s education in England may not be providing the relevant learning the child needs. Whereas, early years education in Uganda may be failing its children as not even a quarter of the relevant age attend pre-school and the government are not providing enough funding to support early year’s education.
References
Data.worldbank.org, (2014). School enrollment, preprimary (% gross) | Data | Table. [online] Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRE.ENRR [Accessed 5 Nov. 2014].
Deininger, K. (2003). Does cost of schooling affect enrollment by the poor? Universal primary education in Uganda. Economics of Education Review, 22(3), pp.291-305.
Gov.uk, (2013). Early years foundation stage - Improving the quality and range of education and childcare from birth to 5 years - Policies - GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-the-quality-and-range-of-education-and-childcare-from-birth-to-5-years/supporting-pages/early-years-foundation-stage [Accessed 5 Nov. 2014].
Malik, S. (2013). Early schooling damaging children's wellbeing, say experts. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/12/early-years-schooling-damaging-wellbeing [Accessed 5 Nov. 2014].
Newvision.co.ug, (2012). The State of Early Childhood Education in Uganda. [online] Available at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/630983-the-state-of-early-childhood-education-in-uganda.html [Accessed 5 Nov. 2014].
Provisions
Sita Kakkad
The early education provided for infants in Uganda and England are very different, England provides up to 570 hours of free education a year for children aged between 3-4 years. Uganda however, does not provide any form of free pre-primary education for infants. Parents in Uganda are expected to pay. Those who live in rural areas of the country are less likely to have the option of sending their children to pre-school as they have no access to one. ‘The Uganda Bureau of Statistics reported that out of the 32 million Ugandans, 27 million live in rural areas’ this leaves a small matter of 5 million having proper access to the schools, even though some parents may not be able to send them to one.
In England, the government provides 15 hours of education to children between the ages of 3-4 years a week, in some circumstances, the government will provide these free hours of education/nursery time to children under the age of 2. This allows parents to work, further educate themselves, and provide the basic foundation of learning for their child without having to worry about providing this. Unfortunately, Uganda are unable to provide this support. Parents in Uganda are asked to pay to secure the nursery’s growth and responsibly pay the all of the teachers, paying the teachers and support workers ensures that the facility stays open and running; if they aren’t paid the facility will be left neglected and unable to stay open due to the teachers having to take on other jobs that provide. Research shows that organisations are in the process of being set up in Uganda to help stabilize young children’s education. These organisations run off charity workers who raise money to build education facilities around the world. For example, Parenta Trust recently set up a nursery in Uganda, with three classrooms available, this facility is able to hold up to 140 children. Although this is a small start, this can help to reduce the amount of children left uneducated in Uganda.
Parents in England are only asked to pay if they have chosen to provide their child with private education, or to put their child into nursery for longer than the free provided hours. Statistics show that children who are able to keep their attendance up from a young age are more likely to succeed and keep attending education until an older age. This explains the lack of educated people in Uganda, due to the lack of wealth in the country, and the little accessibility to schools and universities they have, people are unable to grasp education and improve their quality of life. This means that until more pre-schools are built in the rural areas of Uganda, children will continue to suffer, and the percentage of children in education will not rise.
Luckily for Uganda, there are projects and people around the country who are willing to help improve life for the uneducated children living in poverty. England continues to support education, and provide for the ongoing generations.
References
Parenta.com, (2014). Parenta Trust opens first pre-school in Africa! | Parenta.com. [online] Available at: http://www.parenta.com/2014/06/09/parenta-trust-opens-first-pre-school-in-africa/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2014].
Gov.uk, (2014). Free early education and childcare - GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/free-early-education [Accessed 10 Dec. 2014].
Newvision.co.ug, (2014). The State of Early Childhood Education in Uganda. [online] Available at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/630983-the-state-of-early-childhood-education-in-uganda.html [Accessed 10 Dec. 2014].
Importance of Early Years Education
Norelle Kolano
It is my intention to comparatively analyse the differences and similarities of an early year’s education in both England and Uganda. I aim to fairly portray how important both countries consider an early year’s education to be and how certain factors can affect this.
UNICEF representative, Ms. Aida Girma (2014) has suggested advocating and promoting greater public and private sector investment in young children will ensure that they are well-nurtured to grow into a strong, healthy and productive work force capable of contributing meaningfully to Uganda’s development and competitiveness. It is refreshing to see, that it has been recognised that early childhood is important and acknowledged it is the next generation for the country so it is somewhat like an investment ensuring they are provided with the knowledge needed. She added that the focus on early child development was especially critical because a large number of children in Uganda are poor and deprived in their early years, and most likely to suffer irreversible damage that may hamper the development of their full mental capabilities.
Early Education which was founded in the UK in 1923, states they still continue to remain committed to supporting families and the professional development of all those working in early childhood education to ensure effective early childhood experiences are of a high quality for all children across the UK. It may be seen that there is a similarity between both countries here as there is evidence of support from people in organisations to ensure early years education is up keeping a high standard.
The 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA) stated that countries should view early childhood as part of basic education. Once countries recognise the positive value of state investment in this area, the next challenge is to mobilise funds. In general, government funding for early childhood is extremely small. For this reason approaching the private sector (non-profit and for-profit) can be an effective strategy. This could be particularly daunting for a developing country like Uganda as early childhood may be overshadowed by other pressing priorities, such as universal primary education. This evidence also suggests that more finances need to be put into early childhood in order to create an investment for the next generation.
According to UNICEF statistics between 2008 and 2012, the Pre-primary school enrolment ratio in Uganda for males ranked at just 13.5% and females 14.2% in comparison to the UK’s figures that were 81.8% for males and 85% for females. There is a huge difference in statistics here as the figures of enrolment in the UK are more than tripled compared to Uganda. (Douglas and Ross, 1965) claimed that children who had attended nursery provision gained cognitively and emotionally in the long run. I perceive this to be a social setback for Uganda because it could be socially impacting the child because a nursery enables them to communicate with one another.
In conclusion, on both countries behalf’s you can establish that an early year’s education is deemed important. However finances in Uganda have affected the children as from the above figures there are simply not enough children attending early year’s education compared to the UK. However if the finances were put into place this may eliminate many of the setbacks Uganda has.
References
http://www.warchild.org.uk/what-we-do/uganda/acholi-children-into-education-project
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25304848
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uk_statistics.html#117
http://www.unicef.org/esaro/5440_uga2014_ecd.html