Standards and Early Childhood Education seem to have caught the fancy of many people in the education sector. One such exercise on standards is led by UNICEF and the Project Wing, Ministry of Education Government of Pakistan, and is part of a global initiative known as, “Early Learning and Development Standards”. Under this initiative, several countries in various regions have worked/are working to identify and establish early learning and development standards; these standards cover a wide range of children’s experiences from learning in the classroom to parenting at home.

The process started in the SAARC countries in September 2008, with a workshop in Nepal, organised by the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia. If you are interested, scroll down and read the news on ELDS Writing and Validation Workshop in Kathmandu.
From 11-12 November 2008, TRC, represented by Amima Sayeed, participated in an orientation workshop on ELDS in Islamabad. As Pakistan has hopped on to the ELDS caravan of countries and plans to focus on teaching and learning only, we at TRC feel that it is essential that instead of starting from scratch the ELDS builds on all the good work already undertaken for Early Childhood Education in Pakistan, and bridges some of the gaps in the current draft document.