After a gap of a good decade I arrived at the Shah Jalal International Airport Dhaka, to find that the country has made much headway and know its direction today. Buzzing with International investors and progressive youth the place is at peace with itself. Islam and the State are in synergy but not coming in the way of each other. Infact I was delighted to hear a lot of professional drawing examples from the Qumran on many issues but in a very progressive way. Professional women clad in modest saris throng the streets and offices side by side men and both genders much at ease with each other.

The reason for my travel was to participate South Asian Regional Conference on the Early Childhood Development arranged by Bangladesh ECD network at Brac University and Asia- Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood. The headway made by Bangladesh in Education is remarkable with Gross Enrollment Rates 100% Net Enrollment Rates 89% and only 11% primary aged children are out of school. They have a sector wide program on primary education along with Pre-primary Educational Operational Framework which focuses on ECD. The country has made headway by focusing on its education systems and today their economic their economic growth rate per annum is estimated to be around 6.5%.   

After having been a speaker last September at UNESCO’s World Conference in Moscow on Early Childhood Care and Education with a thousand delegates and 76 delegations, I was wrong in my assumption that the first ever regional conference in Dhaka would be somewhat low key and which it was not.

Truly a  constellation of more then 600 most experienced and devoted professional including academics, professionals and doctors and engaged many more countries then just South Asia including UK, Canada, USA, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. To the developing countries ECD remains to be a challenge and we ignore the most important age group 0-8 of our population to push them into darkness after birth with very little hope to come out of poverty and deprivations.

Since this was a conference on both Care and Education of Earlier years it brought together experts on early education as well as medical experts to cover the developmental aspects.
Ranging from successful classroom interventions and home and education connection in very different environments from slums to internally displaced camps. All countries spoke of their innovative experiences. It is globally agreed that the teachers and parents need to be made aware of these important years n a child’s life and age specific handling of the child is necessary to optimize on the age specific window of opportunity. Inclusion, Equity and Resources remain central to the debate.    

Generally the recognition of the stimulation and health aspect is always missing from the discussion but the doctors brought attention to brain development in early years and highlighted that 80% of the brain development is by the time a child is three and is linked to good health and nutritional intake. Also laying emphasis on brain growth and its links to genetic composition as well as stimulation. Environmental inputs have a critical impact on the Childs brain development. All of the countries spoke of all the headway they had made to harness the children to grow as a Nation and in a direction to be productive citizens.   

I was delighted to have spent three days meeting the best of the regional professionals and being energized by the positive hope in Bangladesh. It was a pleasure to listen to the Bangladeshi Sate Minister Shirin Sharmin Chaudhry and Dr Manzoor the chairperson of the network and my friend Mahmooda Akhter from Brac University did a fine job of getting us all together along with the ARNEC.

In the global map our region harbors the largest population living in absolute poverty and that leads to enormous wastage of human talent and capability. If the situation was to be turned around we have the greatest prospects and possibility of nurturing capabilities of people and advancing human development by taking essential steps for children’s development at the critical early age.