About the Journal
IECED believes that all Pakistani children deserve the best possible growth and well-being, which can only be realized by combining efforts from home, school, and community. All children aged 0 to 8 must have access to holistic Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Pakistan was a signatory at the Dakar Conference on the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). Universal education was one of the most important goals agreed to in the Conference. However, we failed to set up the required institutions for training quality teachers which were a prerequisite for meeting this goal.
Meanwhile the demand for teachers for staffing the mushroom growth of nursery, kindergarten and preprimary schools continued to grow. In the absence of trained qualified teachers the quality of these schools and the quality of basic Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) continued to suffer. In the total absence of acquiring modern advancements that were being made in ECCE in other countries we failed to break the old shackles of an outdated frame of mind that was hampering our education system from the bottom up.
The rest of the world has moved on to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Paris Conference to which Pakistan is also a signatory. Goal 4 of the SDGs highlights the importance of ECCE and aims to make it sustainable.
Our unrelenting efforts in promoting ECCE, spanning over the last 10 years have greatly influenced private school owners as well as policymakers who now not only realize the basic importance of ECCE but are taking practical steps and making policies at provincial and federal government levels to train qualified ECCE teachers. The broad gap between the demand and supply of trained teachers however persists.
Our Logo
IECED’s logo expresses, that when a children grow up in a responsive care giving environment, they receive a message that they are worthwhile, that their needs will be met, and that their unique temperament and talents will be respected. When a caregiver (parent/guardian and/or teacher/provider) is sensitive to them and reacts consistently, children feel safe and supported. It allows children to learn and develop in the presence of a responsible adult. By embracing the most current scientific and research-based information on holistic and optimal child development, we must safeguard and nurture the “natural” child.
Our Vision
All young children in Pakistan deserve optimal well being and development. Which is only possible through a comprehensive approach and by engaging home, school and community.
Our Mission
The mission of IECED is to establish a teacher training education institution in Karachi, Pakistan that produces outstanding ECE teachers, educational leaders, teacher educators and researchers who are inquiring and reflective, value excellence and are committed to improving the ECE education system in Pakistan and beyond. This it will do through offering programmes influenced by evidence-based research on teaching and learning, a close link between theory and practice and effective use of technology. It is also to engage in advocacy to improve the status of ECE teachers, make teaching a sought after profession and facilitate the development of a career ladder for teachers and to undertake research aimed at improving school effectiveness and facilitating evidenced based education policy development.
