Pakistan

This is a letter from a doctor in Pakistan who is concerned about the "race to the finish line" rather than the needs of the people as he sees it. This could be said all over America as well. We want programs NOW but we don't always understand the problems. In fact in America, we don't even know what early childhood is. When the experts figure that one out, the money drain, will stop. Right now I'd advocate a stop, look and listen before we put another dime into early childhood. Our governor here in Indiana is privatizing a lot of state run projects. That's an initiative that would really help early childhood.


Childhood and Globalisation
Sunday April 23, 2006
Pakistan Tribune, Pakistan

I refer to the recently organised conference and symposium on "Early Childhood Development" by the Sindh Education Foundation. I would like to share my observations and point out a few missing things, which I think would have added value and relevance to the conference. Early childhood is the formative period for the development of the personality as a whole. I think that generally we fail to distinguish between its various stages, i.e. early, middle and late childhood, which spans from 0 to twelve years.

It would be helpful to address each period specifically as the needs, issues or problems related to each stage are different. There are three major stakeholders of child development; parents, teachers and experts on human behaviour (psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, etc). But I noticed from the conference programme that local experts on human behaviour were missing.

The issues and problems discussed and interpreted by parents and teachers would produce more fruitful results and help in finding solutions if human behaviour experts were brought in.

Human diversity is under threat from globalisation and very few sections of the society are conscious of this issue. Unfortunately, it has been observed that institutions and individuals who claim to be creating awareness against the negative impacts of globalisation on culture, language, education and society are themselves engaged in promoting and advancing globalisation.

The Sindh Education Foundation has opened a large number of schools for girls and women in disadvantaged and backward areas. But it tends to produce documents and educational material in English, while there is a dire need for them to be done in Sindhi or Urdu. I was wondering which child was being referred to during the discussions; the rural, the semi urban or the urban.

However, it was obvious that the discussions revolved mainly around the elite child who watches TV, goes to an English medium school and suffers from lack of attention from its busy parents. I think we should be mindful of the fact that alienation from the local people and discouraging diversity are morbid signs of globalisation.

Dr Qadir Abro
President Organization for Mental Health
Karachi