'Investment in early childhood education will give good returns'

MUMBAI: Investment in Early Childhood Education ( ECE) is crucial for every country and will give the best returns in the form of best social structure and human resource, said Dr Ellana Yalow, vice-chairperson of the Knowledge Learning Cooperation, USA.

The returns in the form of benefits the society gets with the investment on early childhood education is immense and politicians should realise it, Yallow said while speaking on "Opportunities and Challenges in ECE' at the Global Conference held here today. Yalow said the education process in cognitive, skill and language develops in a child from zero to five or even before birth and therefore it is important to give a comprehensive and quality care to a child.

" India has the world's largest child population and it is critical this large human resource pool gets a good start in education," she said adding that neuroscience studies have clearly demonstrated that experiences in early childhood have a significant impact on brain development.

The nature and quality of a child's experiences from birth to six establish the foundation for future cognitive and social development, she said.

When asked that in India the age that is fixed for right to education is six, Yalow said, "it is too late as the between zero and three years, 70 per cent of the brain develops in a child and if proper environment is not provided for an overall development of a child before six years, you are risking the development of not only a child but the society as a whole and the nation".

The investment made in ECE gives returns in the form of preventing drop-outs and thus teenage pregnancy and juvenile crime. It definitely improves appropriate development of children who are the future of the world, she said.

Yalow said in US her corporation has 1,800 pre-school under various brand names and the age group include infants from six weeks of age to 12 years.

Quoting Nobel Laureate Professor James J Heckman's equation on human capital development as a solution for securing economic future, Yalow said Heckman has proven that there are great economic gains to be had by investing in early childhood development.

"His groundbreaking work with a consortium of economists, developmental psychologists, sociologists, statisticians and neuroscientists showed that early childhood development heavily influences health, economic and social outcomes for individuals and society at large, she said.

Jeremy Williams, the Singapore-based Chief Academic Officer of Knowledge Universe who owns several pre-school organisations said that he would like to partner with India in ECE.

"We are key players in ECE and we are planning to partner with Indian players. We are watching closely the changes in policies in India," he said adding that "we need to understand Indian needs and we can not replicate what we are doing in other countries here."

"We want to come here (India) and work for the benefit of future human capital," Williams added.