Keynote speaker: Noura Al-Fayez

Speaker 1: Haya Al-Awwad (guest-speaker)

Speaker 2: Rashid Al-Abdulkarim

Moderator: Khalid bin Dahesh

Summary

Early childhood is receiving the attention of decision-makers and educators, especially after the results of research and studies that confirmed the importance of formal enrollment of the child during his early childhood in good early childhood education and care programs. This formal enrollment has a positive effect on balanced physical and psychological development, sound mental development, and high academic achievement, especially if the child has a stimulating and supportive environment for learning, and a safe, sound and healthy atmosphere that guarantees the right of the child, meets their needs and takes into account the characteristics of their development. The officials of the Ministry of Education have made over the past decades, and they are still making great efforts to upgrade and improve the services provided to early childhood. This stems from a vision and a sense of the importance of this stage, and a conviction that there is an urgent need to improve the services provided.

Among the most important and prominent obstacles facing those who are establishing high-level early childhood centers is the high cost of establishment. In this regard, the funding represents a major challenge for all governmental and private institutions concerned with early childhood education and care. The importance of adopting the comprehensive concept of early childhood from birth up to eight years.

In 2016 some of the national vision 2030 realization programs were adopted, including the National Transformation Program that included initiatives for several agencies in the State. This included the Ministry of Education, which had many initiatives adopted to develop education, the most important of which include: The development of nurseries and kindergartens and expanding their services to include all regions of the Kingdom, with a budget of more than 2 billion riyals. Because of this initiative, the number of kindergartens increased from 2018 to 3684 kindergartens. Also, among the forms of interest in early childhood is the exhibition and the 6^th International Education Forum held in April 2018, which was dedicated to early childhood education and learning.

The organization of early childhood curricula on sound foundations is so important. Such curricula need to be based on scientific principles. Also, it is important to educate and assist families who are unable or unwilling to enroll their children in the early stages of kindergarten (nursery and pre-schools) to develop family educational environments. It is noticed that there are families in which mothers devote themselves to raising their children. It is necessary to pay attention to these families and support them, financially and practically. The fact that a family does not send their children to early childhood schools does not mean that they should not be covered by care, guidance, and attention.

The contributions made on the issue included the following themes:

• Child’s needs in early childhood.
• Early childhood education and care in Saudi Arabia.
• Media and education in early childhood: Sesame Street.
• Having practical mechanisms for advancement.

For more information on the issue, please refer to the link: https://bit.ly/2RAsSAq

Recommendations:

1. Including the KG stage (ages 5 to 6) to the mandatory education scale. There have to be restrictions and penalties against parents who do not send their children to this level of kindergarten.
2. Building an integrated strategy that covers all aspects of childcare during preschool (3 years of age). Brain research has proven the danger of this developmental stage on the human life in general. The proposed strategy needs to include the family and caregiving institutions.
3. Establishing a company for nurseries with a unique trademark. Such nurseries need to have a widespread presence in the Kingdom, with branches in the malls where saleswomen and female shoppers have large availability. Such nurseries may also be present in universities, hospitals, ministries, industrial cities, and complexes to encourage women’s work in the industry.
4. Reviewing and enforcing the laws and national policies relating to working women’s rights. Such legislations confirm the provision of support services for working women, including nurseries (from birth up to three years) at the worksite or nearby. It may be recommended that such nurseries include female teachers who are teaching places.
5. Establishing a national academy for early childhood that caters for setting personal standards for applicants who wish to work in the early childhood field. It shall also cater for providing training, accrediting and licensing positions and projects, and conducting research at the national level. It is recommended to be an expertise-house for policy-makers and has the tools related to early childhood. The universities are also recommended to apply these standards in admitting children to kindergartens.