Category: Free Essays

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) licences childcare centres for children from 2 months to 6 years. Over the years, standards have been raised and quality of childcare centres has improved through higher level teacher training and a higher requirement for the academic qualification of early childhood educators.

In 2002, the Ministry of Education (MOE) launched Nurturing Early Learners (NEL): A Framework for a Kindergarten Curriculum. The Kindergarten Framework provides a broad set of principles and practices to guide early childhood educators plan and implement developmentally appropriate activities for children aged 4 to 6 years old in kindergartens and childcare centres.

As younger children in child care centres do not come under the Kindergarten Framework, MCYS initiated the Early Years Development Framework (EYDF) to enhance quality care for children aged 2 months to 3 years. The two frameworks, taken as a whole, provide early childhood educators with continuity for the care and development of children from 2 months through the kindergarten years until they enter primary school.

The EYDF sets the standard for quality of care, pedagogy and practices that are specific to the developmental needs of infants and toddlers. It defines outcomes for learning and development and provides educators with broad guidelines to plan and deliver culturally and developmentally appropriate experiences, strengthen home-centre partnerships, foster community networks and enhance professional development.

The Development of EYDF

The EYDF was developed with reference to different sources of information building on existing standards and training of infant and child care educators. First, the EYDF team reviewed research and literature from neuroscience, infant and child development, attachment theories, early childhood education, programmes for infant and toddlers and also literature on good practices.

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This exercise reinforced the importance of optimizing children’s development in the first three years of life. During this period the intensity in which neural connections are formed in the brain is unparalleled. What toddlers experience and acquire serve as the foundation for future learning and development.

Second, reference was made to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) with special attention to Articles 3, 6, and 121. The UNCRC Guiding Principles articulate children’s rights to holistic development and having their best interests at the heart of all decision-making process. Several countries2 have embarked on a journey to clearly define what is in the best interests of young children in centre-based settings. Frameworks from these countries served as useful references for the EYDF.

1 Singapore ratified the UNCRC in 1995

2 Countries like Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the UK and the US have articulated frameworks which reflect how children learn and develop, the mediating importance of relationships, developmental experiences (strategies and activities), accountability in terms of goals and outcomes, and partnerships with families and the community.

3 Early Childhood and Special Needs Education Academic Group, National Institute of Education

Third, the development of the EYDF involved considerable input from the local academia and various stakeholders. Research findings from the MCYS/ NIE3 study using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS), contributed to some of the contents in the EYDF. Contributions also came from extensive consultative sessions with the early childhood community, including operators, supervisors, educators, training agencies, as well as parents. Other inputs came from observation visits to infant/toddler settings and conferences in Singapore and abroad. CONFIDENTIAL DRAFT 3

ENVISIONING QUALITY FOR THE EARLY YEARS

The EYDF builds on foundations laid by the child care centre licensing standards and teacher training requirements. It expands on these and weaves a developmental theme into the care practices. The framework serves as a professional compass for early years educators working with infants and toddlers by describing guiding principles and practices to inform and support their pedagogical and curricular practices.

Early years educators can use the framework as a tool to make informed decisions and to plan developmentally appropriate experiences and environments for infants and toddlers. Strategies outlined in the framework will guide educators to focus on developing warm and nurturing relationships with the children in their care by responding appropriately to their physical, linguistic, cognitive, social and emotional needs.

The Framework articulates the indispensible role families play in the care and development of their children and therefore the need to strengthen home-centre partnerships. Linkages and collaborations within the community are included to both support families and children’s learning. In pursuing quality in care, key elements such as critical inquiry and reflection by educators ensure that young children’s experiences are developmentally and culturally appropriate. The Framework advocates a strong sense of professionalism and accountability among those caring for the young. CONFIDENTIAL DRAFT 4

FRAMING A VISION FOR QUALITY IN THE EARLY YEARS

This Framework embraces an image of centre-based quality for young children as one of:

?¶ˆ Children being Secure, Confident, Safe and Healthy

?¶ˆ Children being Involved, Engaged and Enquiring

?¶ˆ Centre, Families and the Community Connecting and Relating

Five key pillars uphold this image of quality:

?¶ˆ The Developing Child

We see the child as a whole being developing physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially and culturally. The child is wired for development and learning even before birth and enters the world resourceful and actively participating in its learning and development. aˆ•If a young child’s brain is to thrive aˆ¦ she needs to be loved, held, talked to, read to and allowed to explore4aˆ- The positive social and emotional support that a young child receives help her feel secure and feel good about herself, and this develops the motivation to learn. We also see the child as being focused, asking questions, like aˆ-what is this?’ and aˆ-why?’ and engaging in problem solving, from figuring how to drink soup from a plate to keeping a tower of 5 blocks from toppling when a 6th block is added. Quality environments and positive relationships with adults help develop autonomy and independence and at the same time builds confidence and self- esteem.

4 Simmons & Sheehan (1997) – source to be provided

?¶ˆ The Intentional Programme

The programme, environment and curriculum are flexible to meet the needs of young children. The emphasis is intentionally developmental and appropriate to the well-being and life stages of young children. The focus is on positive interactions and building warm and nurturing relationships. The environment is created to facilitate play and exploratory behaviours for learning and development. Pre-toddlers who are crawling and toddlers who have discovered the joys of walking need customised environments. The purposeful environment CONFIDENTIAL DRAFT 5

provides opportunities for movements and varied activities and is well stocked with appropriate materials and resources. These are safe, available and accessible to the children.

?¶ˆ The Professional Educator

The Educator is attuned and responsive to the needs of young children. She is keenly aware of the different developmental stages, especially the distinct needs for infants and toddlers to develop secure attachments and relationships. She is also aware of individual differences and needs of children in her care. With this knowledge, the Educator creates a nurturing environment for positive interactions with adults and children and for facilitating play, exploration and learning. The educator is professionally qualified and is always seeking to further develop her skills and knowledge in working with young children, families and the community.

?¶ˆ An Involved Family

The family is an integral part of young children’s development. A shared and sustained partnership between the centre and the home draws on their respective strengths and ensures that children’s growth and developmental needs are addressed optimally. The educator understands that parents and other family members are individuals with their own set of concerns and issues which may at times affect their behaviour towards the child and the centre. While keeping in mind the child’s best interest, the educator also seeks to understand, be supportive and offers help to family members where necessary.

?¶ˆ An Engaged Community

The home-centre partnership is further enriched with linkages with the community. The resources from networking with other professionals, specialists, agencies and organisations, will offer families support and professional assistance when needed. At the same time, the children benefit when community resources are accessed by the children or when they are brought or invited to the centre to enhance children’s health, development and learning. CONFIDENTIAL DRAFT 6

THE EARLY YEARS DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK

The focus on children aged 3 and below is at the heart of this framework. Our professional knowledge and research, past experiences, beliefs and values shape the way we work with children. These factors interact with children’s need to develop secure attachments, stable relationships as well as their inclination to explore the environments.

Children grow and develop as they learn to construct and expand their sense of self, their confidence, their capabilities, and their understanding of who they are in relation to the surrounding environments and the world beyond. The rich fabric of interactions and relationships is the foundation upon which all other developments take place.

The framework recognises the valuable role played by families and Educators and the partnerships with families and the community. The EYDF comprises 3 areas – Guiding Principles, Expected Outcomes and Suggested Practices.

Guiding Principles:

Five guiding principles constitute the foundation of the EYDF and reflect the best interests of children. The principle statements are anchored on research evidence, neuroscience, child development literature and good practices.

The principles embody values and beliefs of how children grow, learn and develop and the role of educators in this process as well as the integral place families and the community have in this development. CONFIDENTIAL DRAFT 7

Guiding Principles
Statements

Guiding Principle 1:

Developing secure attachments and confidence in children with nurturing adults in a safe and healthy environment.

Guiding Principle 2:

Generating culturally and developmentally appropriate opportunities for children’s holistic development and learning.

Guiding Principle 3:

Committing to professional standards and ethics in working with children and families, and to educators’ own professional development.

Guiding Principle 4:

Involving families as partners in the care, development and education of children

Guiding Principle 5:

Engaging the community as support and resources for home and centre.

The role of the preschool in the development of a child is very important. Preschool education provides basic literacy to prepare children for higher levels of study. It also gives training to prepare them for the challenges of life. In particular, it is in the preschool that children learn and improve their motor skills. Teachers play a significant factor in developing and refining these skills. Also, the school is expected to provide enough opportunities and tools for harnessing such skills. In this paper, we discuss the role of the teacher and the school in developing gross and fine motor skills of young children.

Gross motor are broad movements that involve large muscle groups (Mauro, n.d.) while fine motor are movements produced by the body’s small muscle groups. Gross motor activities include walking, jumping, kicking, crawling, climbing stairs, etc. Meanwhile, fine motor skills include writing, drawing, cutting or folding paper, etc. Both require coordination of the body functions such as the brain, eyes, and the muscle responsible to produce the movement (i.e., hand muscles for writing). Inability to perform motor tasks with precision may mean a disability. Therefore, it is important to observe the child closely when undertaking activities requiring motor skills.

As a child grows, certain motor abilities develop. For instance, a two-year old child holds a pen differently from a three or four-year old child. Likewise, a toddler may be unable to hold onto monkey bars while a seven-year old may find it easy to do so. Still, a nursery child will draw a human figure with incomplete features, while a kindergarten who is aware of the body parts may be able to produce a better representation of the actual figure. Given this, it is important to help develop the motor development of a child to avoid delays and identify disability in advance, if any. Particularly, teachers in the preschool should provide activities to make children develop the right skills they need to perform bigger tasks in the future. These activities should include both gross and fine motor activities.

Arnheim & Pestolesi (1978) provide indicators of average motor development in children 48 months to five years. These indicators imply that with only a four-month difference, normal children can develop additional gross motor abilities. For example, a two-year old child can hop two times on one foot while a child four months older can hop four times on one foot. Likewise, a three-year old child can jump from a small step with both feet while a two-year old can do so but with asynchronous feet. In terms of fine motor skills, children show development in fine motor as they age. Particularly in writing, toddlers and children out of school exhibit the so-called supinate grasp with the fist holding the pen while nursery students may have the pronate grasp with the pen between the middle and ring fingers. Meanwhile, a kindergarten student may show the dynamic tripod, which is the way most people, even adults, hold a pen. Considering this, it is important for every teacher to provide activities and monitor students’ motor skills, because a delay in fine motor could mean a disability.

Several activities should be included in the pre-school curriculum to enhance gross and fine motor skills. For gross motor skills, school activities could include hopping, jumping, walking, running, kicking, skipping, crawling, rolling, pushing and pulling and catching. Holecko (n.d.) suggest freestyle activities or dancing to the tune of children’s songs such as “I’m a Little Teapot” or “Wheels on a Bus.” Aside from improving gross motor, these activities bring an atmosphere of fun and camaraderie among children. Moreover, playing games that involve gross motor activities also brings excitement and makes children develop sportsmanship. Furthermore, pretend plays such as imitating movements of animals, things and people allow students to exhibit gross motor, and creativity.

Meanwhile, fine motor ability, which includes writing, drawing, sculpting, tying knots, folding and cutting paper, etc should likewise be given proper attention in the pre-school curriculum. Learners who exhibit inability in such activities should be noted and subject to further observation by the teacher and if possible, by the counselor. Children found to have evidence of disability in either gross or motor skills should be referred at once to the relevant authority for proper intervention. Considering this, it is important to know some standards set as regards developing motor skills in the pre-school classroom.

The National Network for Child Care, a private organization, has developed the Early Childhood Education Rating Scale, otherwise known as ECERS (Harms & Clifford, 1980). This is a set of standards which includes important requirements to look for in a preschool, including space and furnishings, personal care routines, listening and talking, program structure, etc. This scale provides relevant information to both administrators and parents on what to look for in a preschool in as much as developing motor skills is concerned. In particular, it specifies the tools and equipment needed to enhance fine and gross motor skills. A highly equipped pre-school will likely develop motor skills more comprehensively than an unprepared environment. Therefore, it is important to note which tools and equipment should be present in a pre-school.

The tools and instruments that ECERS recommends to develop gross motor ability include building blocks, sand and water boxes, balls, and playground equipment. All these should vary in colors to make them look attractive. They should also come in different sizes to provide allowance for improvement of skills. For example, younger children can play with smaller balls and put up lesser number of building blocks while bigger children can do otherwise. In any case, the school should provide a variety of resources for different kinds of children.

For developing fine motor skills, schools should ensure they cover for the child’s needs to practice fine motor and hand-eye coordination. Activities such as clay-molding, writing, drawing, playing simple musical instruments, and tying a knot are only some of the activities that help improve fine motor skills. Relevantly, writing, drawing and musical instruments, clay, and utensils should also be in place. Importantly, the preschool program should include the proper use of utensils when eating. As schools serve as the second home, so they should learn the proper way of holding utensils for eating.

The development a child’s motor skills may come naturally. It can occur even without the teacher’s intervention. Nevertheless, the pre-school teachers and school programs play a major role in harnessing and refining these skills. Teachers serve as the guide to check whether children are exhibiting safe and proper motor practice. They are also the record keeper to the child’s progress or disability. Meanwhile, pre-school programs and tools also help enrich the child’s motor skills by aiding practice of such skills. Together, these factors harness children’s ability to perform functions, thus preparing them for greater challenges in the primary level and later in the adult life.

In a large developing country like India, Non – Governmental Organizations act as alternative or complementary service providers and try to bridge the numerous gaps in the developmental processes between reach and requirement of services. These alternative service providers play an important role by helping governments through advocating, partnering and complementing the works of the state in order to ensure that all those who are excluded, enjoy their right of equality in society.

Governments are legally, morally and socially responsible that the entire population enjoys their human rights including the right to education and health. These responsibilities are reinforced by most national constitutions and laws and various international conventions like WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF etc., which are ratified by states and are binding to all future administrators. Yet after so many efforts and promises to implement the laws and constitutions the weaker section of the society, not only in India but in all parts of the world, is still denied the human rights of quality education, health and equality.

Healthy and erudite people are the core of any development. Lack of access to the education, securely acquired knowledge, skills and good health is a means for its diminution. Sustainable development is possible only through the access to meaningful learning which in turn is crucial for improved productivity, lessened poverty, improved and preventive health care, empowered women and enhanced equality.

NGOs, as development partners, have the main harmonizing role to play in countries where governments have failed or are unable to fulfill their customary role. In the health and education sectors, there are many success stories that not only created the required physical infrastructure but also developed the academic and caring environment for those who are still left – out.

NGOs as carriers of inclusive growth

Government of India is focusing on the financial inclusion of the society at large. But still there is a greater need for the inclusive society so as the underserved must not feel left out. Here NGOs can play a better role for the integration of this weaker section with the society where government’s efforts are not able to fulfill the gaps and the aspirations.

Access to basic education and health care facilities are basically considered as the prime responsibilities of governments. Governments try to be in line with the internationally – agreed goals of “Education for All” which state that primary education should be free and compulsory. The main objective behind these targets was on augmenting access of children to basic formal education provided by governments. Role of governments as a facilitator of basic education is pertinent as a literate society can take an advantage in building nation’s identity and can also amass benefits of social and economic development. Not only the society at large but individuals can also be benefited in terms of lifestyle, lifecycle and across generations. In developing countries like India, the imperative for educated people is even greater, as it is not only about exercising the right to be learned and a duty to contribution towards the nation for its development, but it is also important for ensuring security.

Health care and education are the primary service sectors given these are the largest, the most prevalent and perceptible institutions in the country, visible even in the secluded regions. Due to their cultural, social and economic dimensions of health and education sectors, these are the most complex institutions to administer and manage. Thus, irrespective of all the efforts and money put in for the fulfillment of constitutional pledge of “Education for All” and “Healthy Citizens”, India is still struggling with the serious issues of poor quality, lack of motivation, disorganization and inadequate access in the schooling and health system. Moreover, where the government’s provision to realize the objectives of universal primary education and healthy citizens has been inadequate to fulfill demand, the sustainable and long-term partnership of government and NGOs can bridge this gap. NGOs as stakeholders in the governance act as driving force behind greater cooperation through the active mobilization of public support for a particular cause.

With transformed focus on expanding the facilities of quality health care and education and to be in sync with the goals of international agencies, greater attention is being paid on role of non – government stakeholders that they are playing and could play in supporting benefactors and government in achieving targets, while government being the main provider. This attracts consideration of the changing role of the government needs to play in supporting the demands of improved health care facilities and quality primary education in cases where it is not the direct provider. The government’s role differs according to the type of the NGO and the extent to which they compliment the public delivery of the services.

NGOs advocate their role towards the achievement of goals of inclusive growth either by putting pressure on the government agencies or by involving directly as care takers. The underserved may take many forms including those “hard – to – reach” in terms of gender, street children, orphans, disbanded children in post conflict areas, children with disabilities, refugees, child labourers etc. These underserved are not able to avail their basic necessities of education and health and hence cannot be a part of inclusive growth because of poverty, and or because of socio – cultural and other demand related reasons. Inadequate supply of resources in isolated and rural areas can further aggravate these constrictions.

NGOs and Orphan’s need for Education and Health

As per a study conducted by SOS Children’s village based on third National Health Survey, there are about 20 million children (about 4% of the total population) are orphan. According to this, 0.3% children were orphaned because of death of their parents and rest 99.7% have been abandoned. The main reasons for such high figures are ascribed to poverty as the main contributor while social unrest and terrorism in some states, as revealed by this survey of SOS Children’s village.

Poverty, disability, disagreements, and lack of awareness are noteworthy constrictions to many children getting into schools. Economic hardships and society’s lack of interest and protection mean that orphans may lose the opportunity to the avail the facilities provided by the public health system as well. Children who have been orphaned by the death of parents or the single surviving parent is not able to take care, are commonly discarded by society, denied affection and care and left with few resources to live on. For social and economic reasons these children often drop out from schools. Sometimes these children are undernourished and suffer from ill – health and are at a risk of mistreatment and negligence. In many situations these children are pushed into illicit activities and sexual activities in case of girl child.

India is leaving no stones unturned with the objective to bring orphan into the mainstream. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Ministry, Health Ministry and Education Ministry of Indian government have implemented various welfare and health schemes for the underprivileged. Also there are more than 800 orphanages across India for the upliftment of this underserved section of society.

The government’s endeavor to improve the access of primary education and health care facilities for orphans is rooted in the importance of basic human rights for all children. This effort of government’s can ensure a status of equality and social security among all sections of society. The benefits of social incorporation, psychological development, secure and structured environment etc. can be leveraged by conferring knowledge and life skills.

Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram – The NGO

According to the official statistics, the orphans in India are 4% (nearly 20 million) of the total population, which is significant figure and should be looked into very seriously. Legislation to combat the child health and education in India is both disproportionate and inadequately enforced. Despite existing legislation, these are the children who constitute the never – been – to – school category, posing a serious challenge to the uiversalisation of primary education and to the goals of WHO. Irrespective of allocation of considerable funds for the education and health to all, government strategies to combat the problem have not been very effective.

The Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram is a Non – Government Charitable Organisation in Greater NOIDA, U.P., has developed a model that uses health care and education as a means of tackling the problems of orphan, with the main focus on girl child and destitute women without any differentiation of caste, religion, region, race or colour. The ashram is a project of H. H. Shri Mataji Devi Foundation. The organization is registered under the Trust Registration Act and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The organization is funded by the members of the Sahaj Yoga Organization and there are some international donors as well. Seminars and workshops are conducted as fund raising activities. NGO does not get any financial assistance from the government agencies. Mrs. Giesla Matzer, the Executive Director told that the ashram is controlled but not sponsored by the state government.

The Ashram is managed and run by the chairman Sir C. P. Srivastava and the trustees. The day – to – day activities are administered by Austrian Citizen Mrs. Gisela Matzer, the Executive Director. She is very affectionately being called Oma by the residents and is like grandmother who always showers them with her motherly love. Mrs. Darshi Gursharan, the beloved granny, has many years of experience as a school principal.

The NGO has two branches namely the Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram and Sahaja Yoga Health and Research Centre. The Ashram spreads over 10,120 square meters. The building is swarming with lush green gardens and ponds, thus one is always in nature’s lap. The garden has many trees, bushes and flowers. Thus one feels completely in tune with Mother Nature throughout the year. Building of ashram encompasses four well furnished big halls, well – equipped kitchen, dining hall, doctor’s room, two guests rooms, computer room, a small beauty parlour, and library.

A woman, being the mother, is the creator and preserver of all humankind. However, i

n our society the number of needy, abandoned women and girls is extremely large and this is the most helpless section of the society. The main thrust of Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram has been to work for this miserable section of society by providing them shelter, making them capable to acquire skill sets through vocational training for sustained life and thus helping them to integrate into society. Starting its work in 2003 in Greater NOIDA city of Uttar Pradesh, Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram is founded with the vision “have pure motherly love for every human, every animal, and the whole earth. Develop inner balance and peace; be collective, tolerant and respectful to everyone.”

This NGO has provided shelter to 54 girls who have been unfortunate to lose their parents at a very young age. Girls with single parent are also provided shelter under extraordinary circumstances when that single parent is not capable of providing a good environment because of unfortunate such as being physically challenged or illness. The age group of children varies from the very young to adolescents.

The second branch Sahaja Yoga Health and Research Centre was started in the year 2011 with the notion to provide free health care facilities to the residents of ashram and outdoor patients. The Health Centre is situated in picturesque, green surroundings and is a unique Health Centre of its kind in the world. At the Health Centre treatment for diseases is done by vibratory awareness, developed through Sahaja Yoga meditation. Since its inception, the health centre is has witnessed an increasing number of patients and has attracted many overseas visitors and many Indians. Cases of Hypertension, Bronchial Asthma, Diabetes, Migraine, Epilepsy, Depression and Cancer have been cured at the Health Centre.

Access to education for the hard-to-reach children – The Formal Education System

Government initiatives to reform the educational service sector by concentrating on pedagogy and teaching and training processes as a means of increasing quality of education have not been adequate to bring about an effective and transformation in the quality of education. The idea of the NGO was conceived by Mata Nirmala Devi, which is developing strategies for educational inclusion of orphans and offering help to destitute women. The Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram started with the notion to put children in formal schooling system. The VNPA has developed and introduced systematic and innovative pedagogic approaches like multi – level teaching, child – centered teaching, development of cognitive and non – cognitive skills among children and integrated learning.

The girls of ashram are sent to attend nearby English medium schools. In – campus computer coaching is provided to the residents. The main reason behind the formal schooling is that the girls would be associated with positive images of a more professionally developed, and regulated system. This would help girls to find jobs in formal sector and would have a sustained and secure future. As per the information provided by Mrs. Gisela Matzer (Oma), the managing director, two of the girls of ashram are pursuing their career in hotel management.

Girls are assisted in their homework by professional teachers and they have special tuition classes for students as well. Depending upon the interests and talents they are trained in various art forms and skill sets from young age. Financial assistance and other helps are provided to the grown-up girls for their higher studies. These are provided with requisite support to find suitable jobs and many are also helped in matrimony based upon their will. In matrimonial cases, the Sahaj Yogis are preferred and there is a system of proper checking of backgrounds in such situations. In few cases persons outside their community are allowed to marry women or girls of ashram.

Vocational Training – The Non – formal Education System

Only reading and writing skills are not sufficient for children, they should be equipped with life skills as a mean for their sustained future. There must be provisions for development of cognitive and non – cognitive skills. The curriculum and teaching methodologies should be pertinent and meaningful for the life situations of underprivileged. To meet out such expectations, innovation and quality improvement is demanded in the areas of education. NGO provision often intends to bring benefits in terms of the alternative forms of pedagogy and accountability it aims to offer is trough non – formal education system. Non – formal educational system may be defined as any systematic and organized educational activity, different from formal schooling system, used to provide selected types of learning and skills to particular subgroups of the population, adults as well as children. Non – formal education includes trainings in the areas like farming and occupational skills, adult literacy programmes and various community programmes of instruction in health, family planning and the like.

In this regard Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram along with formal schooling to its children is aimed at providing training in various non – mainstream courses like music, painting, cooking, embroidery tailoring, fashion designing, beauty care, handicrafts, and Indian classical/folk dance. These training are carried out with the main focus on equipping the residents with employability skills and developing residents to be shareholders of the growing society. Also the non – formal education is a shortcut and cost effective way of providing basic education. These non – mainstream trainings also are the fund raising activities for the organization by selling art and craft items.

Seminars, Excursions and other activities

To make them feel as an integral part of the society, the residents of NGO are involved in various programs and festivals inside and outside the Ashram. All the festivals like Holi, Diwali, Christmas, and Raksha Bandhan are celebrated by the family members of Ashram. These girls are also appreciated by the community and the society members for their participation in various cultural activities. Sahaja Yoga seminars and programmes are attended by the residents across India.

NGO Involvement in Health Research and Development

In developing countries, NGOs have pivotal role in addressing health issues. These organizations are known for developing and implementing innovative and strategic programmes that address health issues. Being in the vicinity of local conditions, these NGOs have requisite data on health infrastructure and personnel and major obstacles to improvement. With these possessions, NGOs often are able to reach those segments of society that are either neglected by society or are not targeted as priority. These non – government organizations try hard to meet the basic needs of unserved by ensuring access to health services, creating a clean and safe environment and promoting community participation.

In ashram every new entrant has to undergo extensive medical checkup in order to ensure that she is not suffering from communicable diseases. Every resident has to make a health checkup on regular basis. For minor illness of residents in – house medical facilities are there. In case of unremitting ailments the girls are resident ladies are taken to nearby hospitals in Greater Noida, NOIDA or Delhi. As per the information provided by the Executive Director, Mrs. Gisela Matzer, some hospitals provide free beds to the patients of NGO whereas other expenses like medicine etc. are to be borne by the ashram itself. Time – to – time dental camps and health checkup camps are organized with the help of medical agencies.

Since the residents of the Ashram come from very depressed life situations, the inner strength and peace is essential. Yoga, meditation and other skills are taught to women and girls that help them trounce trauma and hence have inner balance and peace. These practices are based on the principles of Sahaj Yoga meditation to achieve the highest state of awareness. This gives them a feeling of being loved and respected and also gives them a feeling of social security. Because of her empathy and concern to alleviate human torments, Shri Mataji has created a Health and Research Centre in the premises of ashram to solve the most pressing problems of the society like health and also to help them become better individuals through the process of Sahaj Yoga.

Conclusion

While access to state schooling has grown in many countries in recent years, a hardcore of marginalised children continue to be excluded from this. The objectives to include these marginalized children into mainstream to some extent are realized by NGOs. The endeavors put in by The Vishwa Nirmala Prem Ashram to gain access to the primary education are worth appreciating. The influences engendered by the NGO can be summarized as follows:

Teaching, guiding, counseling and nurturing children to make them responsible and productive citizens of India.

For a sustained and secure future and to be a part of mainstream equipping these children with life skills by providing and assisting with education and training.

Sponsorship for school fees and higher technical education as the case may be.

Providing safe haven for those children and women who are homeless and children who are unfortunate not having parents.

To provide healthcare facilities for orphan and destitute women with the help of in – house doctors as well as multispecialty hospitals.

By establishing projects and activities that generate income for the girls and women of the ashram.

Helping adult girls in matrimony if these girls wish to.

Assisting women and adult girls of the ashram in jobs and placement activities for subsistence.

Assisting residents to cope up with the dilemma of life through meditation using principle of Sahaj Yoga and thus giving a positive and thoughtful approach towards life.

In the light of these points, it may be concluded that unless NGOs make significant contribution in the promotion and implementation of scientific, innovative and culturally suitable approaches to improve the conditions of underprivileged in the fields of health care and education, their best efforts may not prove sufficient for ending various problems faced by this section of society. The role of NGOs in sensitizing underprivileged and make them demand their entitlements for basic rights is very significant.

Table 1: Governing Body of NGO
Name
Designation

Chairperson

Sir C.P. Srivastava

Secretary

Prof. Kiran Walia

Treasurer

Mr. V.A.Deopujari

Executive Director

Mrs. Gisela Matzer

Member

Mrs. Sadhana Varma

Member

Mrs. Vineeta Shanker

Member

Mrs. Neeta Rai

Member

Mrs. Malini Khanna

Member

Mrs. Malti Prasad

Member

Ms Darshi Gurdarshan

Table 2: The core activities of the NGO Surveyed
Name of the Organisation

Vishwa Nirmala Prem Ashram

Location

Greater NOIDA

The Model

rehabilitation of destitute women and orphan children

Critical independent thinking skills are very important for your children. These important skills can enhance self-esteem and promote an ability to meet any challenging situation with ease and optimism. However, as parents we can hinder our children’s ability to develop independence thinking skills by helping or doing more than they actually need. Sometimes, we may even never realize that we are actually doing all the work for them. In life, parents just love their children and they want to take care of their children in every possible way. However, parents may also forget that going all the way to help their children may actually hinder their children’s ability to develop independence thinking skills.

One of the primary goals of parents is to help children develop the intense desire and ability to think on their own without other’s help. Independent thinking is the desire or wish of a person to convince him or her that the information and detail being presented is true, worthy or reasonable.

Why attitude of independence is important for your children? A child who develops independence skills will always feel more confident about themselves and their ability to solve intricate life problems especially when you are not there. You children will feel on top of the world when they work on their own and without your help. They will also show a heightened enthusiasm to work more to achieve minor goals and objectives. Just think how your children will be excited when they learn to wear their socks or zip up the jacket for the first time without any help from you! Just by doing these simple things, they feel so proud of their ability to do things on their own.

Developing independence skills will provide a number of benefits to your children such as:

A steep rise in confidence level and self-esteem

An ability to solve problems those occur in daily life

Developing compassion and love for others

An ability to help others when they are in problems

Better self-image and enthusiasm

When children feel that they can do things on their own, they will also naturally want to learn and master new skills or solve intricate problems. For example, a child who has repeatedly worked on buttoning her blouse and who finally does it without her parent’s help will naturally demand to try wear that blouse all by herself without help from anyone. Alternatively, a boy who has repeatedly tried to tie his shoelace and who finally does it without his parents’ help will start trying to slip the shoes himself.

You feel normally excited and thrilled, if your children are learning all things with their own initiative. This is what most parents expect from their children too. Obviously, parents also want their children learn new things, skills and abilities on their way to adulthood. However, these events may happen only when parents provide their children an opportunity to try to do things on their own. In nutshell, you may need to encourage independence in your children by watching patiently when your small children try to button their shirts on their own even if they take many minutes. If you lose your patience at this critical juncture, you will probably hindering or preventing your children from learning important independence skills. If you observe that your children are failing in their act of learning new skills, you may need to encourage them to try again instead of helping your children with your own efforts.

Independence skills are practical life skills. These skills can easily assist your children develop confidence, feel less scared or nervous and eventually face any situations that are likely to be encountered at school and public places. Regardless of what children, may demand or they feel need, parents may need to try to train them in acquiring critical independence skills and responsibilities. Mind you, it is a lifelong commitment that might be difficult to achieve and satisfy.

Not all children may succeed in learning these skills. There could be many reasons for this perceived failure. Development milestones are not the same among all children. Some of them may show keenness to learn independence thinking skills while others may take some more time to learn them. Whatever the case, parents will need to give enough opportunities for their children to learn these skills at an early age. Cleaning up rooms, tables, helping parents’ finish house chore and getting ready for the school are some of the most important skills that your children can learn. Today, families around the world are busier than ever. Parents also feel bad about not giving enough time for their children. When parents use the available time by working with their children, they can easily teach very important lessons about independence and responsibility.

Teaching Your Children Independence Skills – How Parents can be Proactive in Training their children

Tying shoelaces, buttoning the shirt, cleaning the study table, doing laundry and doing homework on own without parents’ help – these are some of the most common yet important responsibilities for a child. These simple activities may look and feel very simple to many of us. However, they can pose a big challenge for most of the children who are under the age of 10 years. To an adult, these simple jobs may look monotonous and regular. However, these perceived simple tasks may look humungous to most children. There are many skills and techniques that your children mist learn and master before they leave home for their higher studies. Acquiring independence thinking skills at an early age will help your children build confidence and self-esteem.

Young children and toddlers often like to do very meaningful and understandable “adult-type” tasks. Many times, they are too enthusiastic about doing things on their own. What they lack are the techniques or methods to perform these tasks. To help your children succeed in learning independence skills, you may need to set up a congenial physical environment to assist them become more independent. To set up an atmosphere for doing work on own, you may wish to provide:

Easy climb and sit chairs; your children should be able to get in and out of the chair independently,

Easily climbable stools near sinks and wash places so that children can easily wash their hands before and after eating,

An easily reachable waste tub where children can deposit refuse and wastage after snack and dinner time,

Cleaning towels and sponges that can help children clean up

What you can do to help your children become independent:

Providing ample opportunities: Provide plenty of opportunities for your children to learn independent thinking skills. Your children should understand that learning independence skills will help them become efficient and enabled in their classroom and out of it. As a parent, you may wish to cajole your children to do work on their own and without your help. When your children understand that doing small tasks with their own initiatives is good for them, they will try to work on small tasks that are simple and straightforward.

Encourage independence: As far as possible, give limited choices for your children. When your children have limited choices in front of them, they will try to achieve excellence in the tasks they want to perform. Ensure that you respect your children’s preferences.

Example: Let us say that you are giving drinking chocolate to your children. You may now give just two options for them. Ask this simple question – “Do you need that orange cup or the blue cup?” Alternatively, your children want to dress up for their piano class. You may ask your children this simple question – “The red dress is that side drawer and the grey one is in the cupboard. Pick the one that you like”. Here, your children will try to assess the merit of your question and decide on their answers after thinking over it for some time.

Show flexibility towards your children: Becoming independent takes lot of time. Respect your child’s natural limitations. Never ever, pressurize your children beyond certain limits. Make sure that you integrate the training within the ambit of your work. Use the available opportunities to teach your children independence thinking skills.

Involve your children in making plans: You can ask your children to suggest you ideas to help make the learning program a success. Children can give wonderful ideas. Use their abilities to help them succeed in learning independence thinking skills.

Explain what independence is: You may wish to explain the benefits and advantages of mastering independence thinking skills. Tell them how learning such skills will help in classroom and in other places.

Let children try to do work on own: Some children will try to do small tasks on own. For example, children love to button their shirts or tie shoelaces. Most children fail in their first few attempts because it is natural; children may not develop the necessary muscle-eye-bone coordination when they are young. Let them try to do their tasks. If they fail, you can help them but with solutions to the problems. Tell them how they can button up their shirts and demonstrate the act by standing in front of them.

Be affirmative and reinforce positive assertions: Always, reinforce positive reinforcement and avoid negative ones. Be positive with your children and help your children become positive as well. If they do any task with success, compliment them with your heart.

There are a number of independent thinking skills that your children must learn and master to become successful in life. Here are some of them:

Note: The most important skill that your children must learn is to realize that mastering independent thinking skills will help them achieve critical goals.

1. Encourage your children to ask questions and find answers with their own efforts

2. Make sure that the questions should always have a “why” and “what happens if” component attached to them.

3. Your children should find their own solutions or answers to their problems. Buttoning a shirt is one classic example. Most children often fail in their first attempt. However, they will master the task with continuous repetitions.

2. Teach your children experimentation. Your children should be able to experiment on simple challenges and tasks till they find a valid solution.

Please remember that learning independent thinking skills relates very closely with performing most common daily tasks. Children who develop critical independent thinking skills can be very successful in their life.

Playground can be defined as play park or play area, to let children with a specific design and recreational equipment such as slide, seesaw, merry-go-round, swing set, chin-up bars, jungle gym, sandbox, spring rider, monkey bars, overhead ladder, trapeze rings, mazes and playhouses. Based on the literature review that I have found, a playground is an institutionalized environment that supply proper facilities layout. It may support the accession of the children activity and children’s motor development.

The playground is an essential part of any school, early childhood service and community park. Children spend many hours of their day occupying themselves with what the playground has to offer. Schools, early childhood services and playgrounds with well marked game activities and safe and inviting equipment provide increased motivation for children to participate in physical activity and become engaged in purposeful play. As a result, these may help children to cultivate their strength, physical coordination and adaptability also providing enjoyment and recreation.

Play is primitive to children’s happiness and well-being, If children have the opportunities for play are restricted there are likely to be profound effects on their life experience in general and more specifically on their physical and mental health. Health experts have explored that if children lack of particular forms of play, it will cause some growing problems such as rickets; obesity and attention deficit disorder.

Research (Stratton, 2000, Ridges et al., 2007) supports the use of playground markings for improving students’ physical activity levels. One review of research literature cited in NSW Department of Education and Training (2005) concluded that the use of playground markings can increase children’s physical activity levels and increase children’s energy expenditure.

A playground not only should be designed to suit the age of the child. During playing, children can experience real emotions, create their own uncertainty, experience the unexpected, respond to new situations and adapt to a wide variety of situations. Play can let them to form friendships and attachments to adults and to places, allowing for the development of familiarity with both.

Thus, this study is to explore how does the layout and design of a playground effect children? Is it can provide opportunities for children’s independent learning? Does the layout of a playground can bring families and children closer while playing together in the playground?

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Layout and design of children playground using modular approach

The first literature review studies the guidelines set for the layout of playground. They have similar equipments but different arrangement throughout the entire playground. Most of the equipments are designed based on safety guidelines. According to the literature review, the layout and design of a playground has different effect on children’s growth. The modular system can be assembled in a variety ways to use in multiple functionalities.

Landscape designers, Architects, builders, teachers and gardeners can be called upon to design children play area. There is no customary design of playground layout currently. Layouts are normally designed by the experience of the builders and designers. Some layout designs mostly focus on the concept of “flow” of play, and the safety guidelines controlling the overall layout, such as the necessity to separate two different areas such as apathetic play areas distribute from active ones. Most of the customers are encourage by the playground equipment manufactures to choose equipment they like and teach them to customize their layout and design of playground.

To design a free unstructured and non-universal layouts, there are a few layouts and design of public playgrounds found in Singapore. Facilities planning decide how an activity’s specific fixed credit best support achieving the activity’s objectives. It is involve with the layout, design, location and accession of people, machines, and activities of a system or enterprise within a physical special environment.

There are three important considerations are flow, space, and activity relationships in the specification of a facilities. Flow may determine the activity relationship which causes the design and location of a facility; space requirements determine the layout and sizes of the facilities.

Flow has the material flow, material management, logistics and physical distribution. The flowing pattern is the most important in the consideration of designing a playground. The consideration of flow principles and flow patterns which is to minimize flow, maximize directed flow paths, and decrease the costs of flow is planned for effective flow requires

Space requirements have to be determined carefully because it is hard to be done as true space requirement is uncertain in future. Activity relationship provides the basis for many decisions in facilities planning process. The primary relationships considered are organizational, flow, control, environmental and process relationships.

Besides minimizing the costs of flow, other considerations in layout planning are Frequency of flow between facilities, shape and sizes/area of facilities, floor space available, the number of facilities needed to minimize queuing, the time spent by a material in particular facilities last but not least the particular requirements between facilities.

A procedure named Systematic Layout Planning was developed to produce facilities layout. It is a technique approved by Richard Muther. a step-by step planning procedure which allows users to visualize, identify and classify some of the activities, relationships, and alternatives in a layout generation project. The main concern in Systematic Layout Planning Procedure is product, quantity, services and routing. it is not used in the procedure although the timing is considered as one of the input.

According to the layout planning by Robin C. Moore in Play for All guidelines, the equipment should be grouped closer together which develop similar skills for children. Equipment with similar character should be placed further from each other. Same character of equipment will cause queuing and cluttering that should be avoided for smooth traffic or flow of children. Cluttering also increases chance of conflict and bullying which are not favourable for safety.

2.2 The children playground as an effective approach to incorporating mathematics and art into the creative practise of play.

The second literature review shows that the design of play spaces will affect the quality of play experienced within these spaces and explored to the effectiveness of architecture and playgrounds to link mathematics and art to promote the playground for the children.

There are three ways to think about how to incorporate mathematics and art into playgrounds; one can compare three scenarios below and evaluate:

Educational appendages: A playground that is used with an educational agenda to teach curriculum-based mathematics and appreciation of art.

Implicitly mathematical and artistic: A playground that is not designed with heavily mathematical and artistic qualities in mind, but the mathematics and aesthetics are implicitly in its build. Every playground by default contains mathematics and art to some degree.

Explicitly mathematical and artistic: The designer works intentionally to create emotional and phenomenological response through overtly mathematical and artistic architecture. Very few playgrounds today are designed in such a manner.

These are certainly great ways to incorporate mathematics and art into playgrounds, but are not substantially altering the playground architecture or fostering ‘free’ informal play in children. The second way to think about playgrounds is to consider that all built environments are architectural, and thus contain mathematics and art automatically. If mathematics and art are consciously designed into the play spaces and equipment then opportunity opens up to increase the engagement and creativity of children at play.

In a nutshell, to understand how a playground may be effective to play, we need to understand the psychological effects of shape, geometry, colour, texture, light, and other architectural elements. Colour, pattern, symbols, texture, form and lines are all related back to human environments and how they affect mood, productivity and creativity. Making the most of these valuable or limited play spaces should be seen as a worthwhile to work forward for the future.

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODS
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODS
3.1 Case study
3.1.1 Quantitative

There are two types of research methods whish are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research is an investigation into a specific problem, based on testing a theory, measured with numbers, and analysed the information with using statistical techniques. The purpose of quantitative methods is to determine whether the predictive observations of a theory hold true. It is based on the principle that something is meaningful only if it can be observed and counted. Its key characteristics are numerical data that permits a range of statistical analysis. There are several approaches to quantitative research which include experimental, descriptive, correlational and causal comparison. Inferential statistics are frequently used to generalise what is found about the study sample to the population as a whole.

3.1.2 Qualitative

A qualitative process of investigations has the purpose of using multiple perspectives to understand a social or human. Qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research is considered to access to the deeper significance that the subject of the research attach to the topic being researched. It involves naturalistic approach to its subject matter, an interpretive and gives attention to what the data contribute to important research questions or existing information. Given this range of data types, there are also diverse methodological and theoretical approaches to study design and data analysis such as phenomenology; ethnography; grounded theory and case studies. The researchers’ also play a important role in qualitative data analysis and in the bases on which generalisations to other contexts may be made.

3.1.2.1 Phenomenology

Phenomenology is sometimes considered a philosophical view as well as an access to qualitative methodology. It has a history in some social research disciplines containing sociology, psychology, and social work. Phenomenology is thought that giving more attention on people’s subjective experiences and understanding of the world.

3.1.2.2 Ethnography

Besides that, ethnography is studying the whole culture. Ethnography is an advanced area with a great variety of practitioners and methods. Besides that, participant observation as a part of field research is the most common ethnographic approach. The ethnographer becomes deeply involved in the culture as an active participant and records additional information.

3.1.2.3 Grounded theory

Furthermore, grounded theory is a composite repetitive process. The research start with the raising of generative questions that helps to conduct the research but not expected to be static or confining. Core theoretical concept is identified when the researcher start to combine all the data. These may take months and the research aim to be very open at the early phase. After that, the researcher is more intended in summary and verification.

3.1.2.4 Case study

A case study is detailed investigations of groups, institutions, individuals or other social units. Case studies are focus of attention is the individual case and not the whole population of cases compare with other research studies. Nevertheless, case study is the focus may not be on generalization but yet on understanding the specific of that case in its complexity. A case study pay attention on a bounded system, mostly under natural conditions, so that the system can be understood in its own habitat.

3.1.3 Conclusion (Case study)

I decided to use case study as the method of this research. It understands the particular case such as how does the layout and design of the playground effects on children’s growth. This studies of this research is focus on an individual case, the experiences of participants from different campuses could be carried out. These might involve indepth interviews with the facility participants, observations of their classes over time, surveys of students, interviews with peers and department chairs, and analyses of student work samples at several points in the program. Selection of participants might be made based on factors such as their experience and training, type of students taught, or differences in institutional supports.

3.2 Ethic
3.2.1 Introduction

According to Santa Clara University, ethic is two things. First, ethics is right and wrong that assign what humans have to do, usually in terms of rights, agreement, benefits to society, justice, or specific honour. Ethical standards also involve those that require virtues of honesty, kindness, and faithfulness. Besides that, ethical standards include standards relating to authority, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Second, ethics is the study and development of someone’s ethical standards. As noticed above, feelings, laws, and social norms can angle off from what is ethical. it is essential to analyse someone’s standards to guarantee that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means the constant effort of studying our moral beliefs and our moral conduct, live up to standards that are reasonable and entirely-based. There are four characteristics in research ethics, which are consent, harm, privacy and deception.

3.2.1.1 Consent

There are four characteristics in research ethics, which are consent, harm, privacy and deception. First, consent is the process by which research subjects choose whether they want to take part in a research study. Consent includes three elements which are capacity, information, and voluntariness. Consent have to be contented all three elements that given. Capacity is the capability to get knowledge, and the right to perform. Information contains of insuring the subjects are told, and understand, the aim of the study and the part as subjects. Voluntariness is the subjects that have been chosen are free to regain from the study. There must be no force to get a subject to involve the research study. Special attention must be given to gain the consent of children, psychiatric patients, and mentally retarded persons. These groups request that a parent or guardian give consent.

3.2.1.2 Harm

Besides that, harm is that subjects not be harmed by your study. Psychological stress, personal embarrassment, and humiliation should be avoided. A concern of the researcher needs to be the identity of the subject. The goal of course is to reduce the risk of harm as much as possible, but since some risk may always be present. Do not do the risk of harm to the subject outweigh the potential good to society of the study.

3.2.1.3 Privacy

Moreover, privacy defined as every subject has the right to keep private from their information and data who participated in the research study.

3.2.1.4 Deception

Lastly, deception in research includes the wrong information of facts related to the purpose, nature, or consequences of a research study. The researcher is morally wrong if misreprented and caused the study have not successfully consented. It can be sued if harm to the subjects or the privacy is disregarded.

3.2.2 Conclusion

The research study ethics will relate on children’s opinion to understand more how playground design and layout effect on children’s growth. Children’s parents should be informed consent to get permission from them to precede the interview. Researcher should protect all the data and keep the data closed and private.

3.3 Surveys
3.3.1 Interview

There are two types of survey which is interview and questionnaire. An interview is a something like formal discussion between a hirer and candidate, typically in person, in which information is exchanged, with the intention of establishing the applicant’s suitability for a position. Interview is also used as a method of data collection but the information is collected by an interviewer better than through a self-administered questionnaire. Interviewers read the questions precisely as they are on the survey questionnaire. An interview is usually done face to face with someone. The choice of answers to the questions is often fixed in advance; though open-ended questions can also be included within an interview. An interview is way in which we can notice participant’s action while we cannot examine in questionnaire. The advantage of interview is they are suitable to collect all the information from the respondents about their feeling, idea and perceptions. Besides that, they can ask more detailed and certified question, usually can reach higher response rate and all the respondents’ words will be recorded.

3.3.1 Questionnaire

According to business dictionary, questionnaire is done in writing. A questionnaire is a research methods consist of some questions and other information for collect and conclude all the data from the respondents. A list of a survey and research will be asked to a person and printed some information. Questionnaires are used by sociologists and positivists. Questionnaires have also had some advantages such as that they are cheap, do not assume so much effort from the questioner, and often have specific answers that make it simple to collect all the data. Questionnaires are also being limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and respond to them. Thus, for some demographic groups conducting a survey by questionnaire may not be practical. It carries out four basic purposes, first, to collect the proper information. Second, make the information can compare with the analysis, thirdly, avoid the prejudice when asking any question. Last but not least, to make the questions changeable and engaging.

3.3.3 Conclusion

Lastly, I will choose interview methods as my research question because I can record all the answer and information from the respondents. Moreover, face to face given question to them can more understand their feeling and expressions. Children’s emotions are important when questioners asking more details in playground design and layout. Playground is designed to children to let them to enjoy, thus, children’s feeling need to be survey from us to let the designer design a better layout and design for children.

3.4 Sampling
3.4.1 Introduction

Sampling is a statistical method of getting representative data or investigation from a group. According to Research Methods Knowledge Base, sampling is a process selecting groups from a population of interest so that we can normalize our conclusion back from the population that are chosen by analysing the sample. There are two types of sampling methods which are non-probability and probability.

3.4.2 Probability

According to the laerd dissertation, probability is defining a group of sampling techniques that help researchers to select units from a population. Probability samples are based on random selection in which every element in the population has an equal probability of being selected for the sample. There also four types of probability sampling which are simple random sample, systematic sample, stratified sample and cluster sample.

3.4.2.1 Simple random sample

Firstly, simple random sample has a list of every element in the population is produced and some of the elements are selected to make sure that equal chance must be given to each element on the list. Simple random sample is the populations and sampling frames. It uses random number tables and computer to select elements.

3.4.2.2 Systematic sample

Secondly, systematic sample is obtained a list of every element in the population and elements are selected by randomly, then skipping a pre-determined number of cases to select the next case. It determining a starting point using a random number table or computer generated random number and calculating the sampling interval.

3.4.2.3 Stratified sample

Thirdly, stratified sample is divided by selected race, age, and gender and elements are selected from the stratified lists using either simple random or systematic random sampling. It also stratifies the sampling frame and selects cases using simple random or systematic random sampling.

3.4.2.4 Cluster sample

Lastly, cluster sample do not need that a sampling frame listing every element in the population of interest be produced. It also need to identified and sampling naturally occurring groupings. Cluster sample is using multiple levels of naturally occurring groups and obtaining or producing sampling frames.

3.4.3 Non- probability

Non-probability sampling does not involve any random selection compare to probability sampling. We can estimate confidence intervals for the statistic precisely with probability sampling but non-probability is hard for us to make it accurate that each item has a chance of being included, making it impossible either to estimate sampling variability. There is no method to measure the precision result of the sample. Non-probability sampling cannot measure the reliability because the data quality of some survey only can compare with the available information. Most of the non-sampling methods need some effort and organization to complete successfully. There are four types of non-probability which is reliance on available subject, purposive or judgmental samples, snowball sample and quota sample.

3.4.2.1 Reliance on available subject

Firstly, reliance on available subject is the units are selected on the support of availability, the researcher does not allow to control over the representatives of the sample. For example, the researcher must understand and know the characteristics of passing by and the researcher cannot use the result from accessibility sample to generalize to a wider population.

3.4.2.2 Purposive or judgmental samples

Secondly, purposive or judgmental samples is the researcher select units which are most representative of the characteristics, so that, every unit in the population not acceptable for accession in the sample, but the composition may be affected by the self-influence of the researcher as he/she believed should be interviewed.

3.4.2.3 Snowball samples

Thirdly, snowball sample is a unit with a required characteristic is recognized. This unit is asking to identify other unit with the desired characteristics. These additional units are also asked to identify other units. Through this process the size of the sample grows larger and knows as “snowball’ sample. Snowball sampling is useful when less people know about a population being studied or the goal is to study social groups such as “social network”. Not all units in the study population would have a chance of being included in the sample. Therefore, inferences cannot be validly drawn to the study population.

3.4.2.4 Quota samples

Lastly, quota sample is units are selected on the basis of availability with “quotas” being selected to represent the distribution in the population. A quota sample is same to a covered sample, except that units are selected on the support of convenience.

3.4. Conclusion

In a nutshell, I will choose non-probability purposive or judgment samples for my research because it is one of the knowledge of population and suitable for my purpose of study. Children between the ages of 6 to 12 should have their parents by their side during the interview so that their parents have less worried to them.

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction

According to the InvertorWords.com, data analysis is the process of classifying, compiling, and tabulating information for the use of achieve constructive data that can be used to analyse the conclusions, estimate the outcomes and decisions.

The interviewee is dividing into two groups that is primary student and secondary student. This is because different ages have different kind of thinking about the playground. Secondary students surely have matured thinking compare to primary student but primary students have innocence thinking view.

4.2 Data Analysis
4.2.1: Question 1
How often do you go to playground?
Primary student

“2 times a week, on weekend”

“Will go every day before having an Ipad”

From the above statement, we can see that children are more active in the early age before the existence of technology. After the existence of technology, their playground is only inside their mind and the play mate is their gadgets.

Secondary student

“Once a week”

“Twice a month”

From this we have noticed that teenager is now lack of energy or effort to go out and have their time spend on exercise. This is not a good sign for a teenager who is still having their mind developed.

Conclusion

From the data that were gathered above, we can see that our daily life is being replaced by technology. This shows also how have we human being have evolved into. For my opinion, the overall look and also the function of the ride of every playground should at least follow the latest or newest trend as it will attract teenager or kids to play in the playground. So there will still be some upgrade needed towards the playground but not neglecting the purpose and main reason why playground were designed.

4.2.2: Question 2
Gadgets such as IPAD/IPHONE or others hobby which one does you prefer to play compare with playground? Why?
Primary student (7-12)

“Of course Ipad!! Because many games to play compare to playground.”

“Hmm..Ipad because no need to find a partner to play with me and my parents didn’t have time to bring me to the playground.”

In the above answer, we can conclude that nowadays generation are being brought up using technology and this is a win-win situation for both kids and parents. Whether they realise or not, at this age, kids tend to learn faster and change that into a habit.

Secondary student (13-17)

“Psp, because playground has to use lot energy, but I can either sit or lying for gamming”

“My Iphone! I can listen to the song, play games, facebook, I can do whatever I want to do in my house. Nowadays, playground is dangerous to us because there are a lot of gangsters and some of them taking drugs at there!!”

On overall, we can see the other perspective to this problem. They taught that being outside is dangerous and they rather stay at home. At the end, they prefer holding a device in their hand and be lazy on the sofa.

Conclusion

Clearly the answer given for this question has their own point of view and opinion. For kids below age of twelve, they are just being lazy and brought up in an unhealthy way. This is a win-win situation, as mentioned, kids are being happy when they don’t have to go under the heat and sweat while their parents have no problem keeping the child safe and secure. For children under the age of 17, they are worried that they will be bullied by others as children are exposed to gangster and bully issue when they enter secondary school. They felt insecure outside their comfort zone, their house. The summary to this problem is that children are being over protected when they are young and when they face problem in the future; they choose to stay at home and avoid the problem that might face again in the future.

4.2.3: Question 3
Do you like sharing the playground with older kids? Why?
Primary student (7-12)

“Yes because feel happier when playing with more people.”

“Yes because I will happy when I see they are playing happily.”

In their mind, they don’t really care about how the playground looks like. They just like to have fun with all the acquaintances that are around them. Bumping into each other and play along until play time is over.

Secondary student (13-17)

“Yes because I can meet more friends that way instead of just playing with my friends in school.”

“Don’t like because no freedom when playing in the playground like somebody stalking behind me.”

Youngsters are friendlier when they reached a certain age. This is because they started too socialized with other people slowly. Some of them don’t like to share things with other, maybe is because they felt the space between one another is too near.

Conclusion

From the information gained above. We can see that people do care about the space that they get between each other. The space does affect each other when they are playing in the playground. So by including to similar rides in a playground will also help to create space for a more comfortable ride for the users.

4.2.4: Question 4
What games do you like the most in playground?
Primary student (7-12)

“Swing because can feel the wind .”

“Monkey bar because can climb very high.”

if you noticed, there is a similarity between both the answer gained from the above. Both of the answer includes height. As they said, sky is the limit and kids do stuff without thinking about the consequences.

Secondary student (13-17)

“Swing because I can play with family, they can push I from behind I can feel so lovely and warm”

“SWING!! Because I like the feeling of soaring high whenever I am up above the ground.”

The answer given, there are still children who like to fly high with the ride that they are on. This proves that children like to go high before they reach the age of teenagers. Some of them like to spent time with their family as well when they are in the playground.

Conclusion

There is more than space in perimeter that should be taken into consideration. The space in terms of height should also be taken into consideration. The reason why is because playground can be considered as a space from all direction and height. Therefor the space in the ride and the space around the playground should also be taken into consideration. For kids and children, space for them means the volume of freedom that they could have in the playground.

4.2.5: Question 5
What is the game will you play the first and the last?
Primary student (7-12)

“Monkey bar and slide.”

“Swing and spring rider.”

Kids tend to play rides with higher chance of getting hurt compared to other rides. With this, they come with high spirit of wanting to express their energy in the playground. Kids with higher energy in them tend to play the ride more vigorously at first.

Secondary student (13-17)

“Monkey bar and swing”

“I would go for t

Adolescence represents a period of intensive growth and change in nearly all aspects of a childs physical, mental, social and emotional life. Adolescence has been described by Hall(2005) as ‘the period of storm and stress of human life’. It is a very crucial period of one’s life which covers roughly from 10-20+ years. The most important fact about adolescence is that it is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood. Transition from one period to another always is associated with some problems. Adolescence is not an exception and it is also associated with some problems.

Adolescence can be classified in three stages: (see Appendix 1)

Early adolescence ( 10-14 years old)

Mid adolescence ( 15-19 years old)

Late adolescence ( 20-24 years old)

In this transitional period, the child reaches a degree of maturation. It could be pre, during or post. During puberty, the adolescent undergoes physical, mental, moral, spiritual, sexual and social changes. This is the time where they discover the physical changes in their bodies. Physical growth is one of the biggest changes in the teenage years. But there are also huge changes in ways of thinking, relationships and sense of identity. These can take longer to complete.

1.1 Dealing with body changes

The amazing hormonal and physical changes of adolescence are a challenging experience. Teenagers often become self-conscious or private about their bodies. They become aware of their sexuality, and this starts to show in their relationships with others.

1.2 Intense friendships

Friendships become more important and more intense for adolescents. Teenagers can have a huge desire for lots of contact with friends. They may want to be on the phone or Facebook with their friends all night, for example, even when they have seen them all day. Pulling away from parents and towards friends is a normal, healthy part of psychological development in adolescence.

1.3 Thinking for themselves

Adolescents start to form their own opinions and views. They may not be the same as yours. They may express disagreement and anger at you as they try to work out what they think about things. It can be a shock for parents to have their son or daughter speaking their own mind and challenging parents’ views, but it is a normal part of adolescent development.

1.4 Critical of family

As they learn to think for themselves, young people may decide there are aspects of their upbringing they do not like. Often they are wrong or hurtful in what they say about family life while they are going through this phase of separation. Sometimes, however, what they say may have some truth, and this can cause conflict or hurt.

1.5 Experimenting

Young people experiment with different identities. They will often try on “different hats” to see which one best fits. They try out different styles in hair and clothes, taste in music and other ‘identities’. They take up new activities and drop old favourites. They may change friends. Experimenting may involve risky behaviour like drug use, alcoholic drinks or inappropriate sexual activity. Risk taking behaviour is part of adolescence, but some of these behaviours may be unsafe and/or not okay. Parents need to do what they can to help their young people keep safe.

1.6 Shutting parents out

Adolescence is a time of many changes; strong feelings and mood swings are common. When your children were little, they came to you for comfort or help at these times. Now they may try to deal with these feelings by themselves, or turn to friends for support. It can be especially hard for parents when they feel shut out and unable to help.

1.7 Self absorption

Adolescents are working hard to develop themselves as individuals. This may lead them to be quite self-absorbed. By adult standards they can be selfish and inconsiderate – but they should not be judged by adult standards, yet.

1.8 Anger

In trying to transform parent-child relationships, and manage lots of changes and challenges, young people can experience a lot of anger. Anger is a necessary and healthy human feeling: it lets you know when something is not right and helps you strengthen yourself. But anger needs to be expressed in a safe and useful way – without violence.

Changing relationships with parents

In addition to learning to know themselves, adolescents also need to move from childhood, when their parents controlled most of their behavior, to adulthood, where they will be responsible for themselves. To do so, they need to be able to make their own decisions and face the consequences. It is during this struggle for identity and autonomy that many teenagers and their parents experience increased conflict.

I believe that for teachers to effectively teach and understand students, the need to identify developmental behavior is a necessity.

The developmental challenges faced by my students are:

Physical development

Due to these changes, the adolescent becomes conscious of the physical body changes taking place. They are worried about their looks due to manifested physical changes and also fear about the opinion and the reactions of their peers and adults.

Children tend to show variation in entering the puberty growth spurt. Some children attain puberty earlier and some lag behind. There are various reasons for this such as nutrition, heredity and environment.

These differences mean that some individuals who may have first entered puberty may mature before others of the same age. The early mature begin to feel uncomfortable among the peers and late mature are also worried about their identity in the group. If a child lags behind then he tends to be bullied by his peers and is treated as a small child by his clan.

I have noticed that a majority of my students are often extremely sensitive and perceptive about their own physical appearance and that of their friends. The discrepancies between their less than perfect self-images and the glossy ideals that they are supposed to emulate are a real source of anxiety.

Hence at school level, physical education is compulsory. There is also monthly medical check-up for the form 3 students. Management also has included “Zumba” classes for the girls and there also activities like Martial Arts, Educational Boxing and Archery for both boys and girls during their activity classes. And there are a number of students who have been awarded medals at national level in the respective disciplines.

Social – development

During adolescence individuals face a crisis of identity and role confusion. They pay great attention on how other people view them. They experiment with roles. They attempt to find out what kind of person they are and they adapt the characteristics of other people to see if their characteristics fit them.

Adolescent behaviour is characterised by egocentrism and autonomy. The physical changes coupled with the new thinking abilities, make them over conscious and they tend to become self-centered. As the adolescents begin to socialize, they desire autonomy that should be emotional, behavioural and of values.

It is a period of social development and adjustment. In this stage, the child enters a new field of social responsibilities. The adolescents become socially conscious, self-assertive and loyal towards their group; they develop co-operation and friendship and become responsible.

As such at school levels excursions and field trips are organized. These lead to informal conversations and close contact between members of the group. Group games, debates, seminars and conference are also organised. These help the adolescents participate in social activities.

As a teacher I try to find out the socio-economic conditions, social interests of every adolescent and organise various activities accordingly.

They should be entrusted with jobs of responsibility at home and at school as they grow-up. Self development has been introduced in school to develop a feeling of responsibility among the adolescents.

Emotional development

Traditionally, adolescence has been thought of as a period of heightened emotionality resulting from glandular and other changes. The heightening is characterized by high degree of instability. The adolescents also develop dependency and sometime independency. They also develop some special feelings like – pride, humility, curiosity, guilt, hero- worshipping. All these emotions must be properly guided and they should be provided knowledge to control their emotions at this stage.

Solutions

Parents and teachers must be able to redirect the emotions of the adolescents in a proper manner. The adolescent must be able to control his emotions and also to repress those emotions which are not socially acceptable.

Most of the adolescents accept problems of life in a negative way. They are afraid of facing difficult situations in life. Parents and teachers should encourage the adolescents and point out some of their plus points. They may also suggest means and methods of achieving success. This will restore the self-confidence of the adolescents.

It should be brought into the notice of the adolescent that life is a mixture of failure and success and he must build a power of resistance to face failure in life.

The adolescent has to face a large number of problems at this stage. As such, proper guidance and counseling should be provided by parents, teachers and school guidance counselor.

Parents and teachers should treat the adolescent well. They should give him freedom of action within limit. The adolescent should be kept busy with various activities.

The teacher should try to develop maturity of thinking within the child. The adolescent must be allowed to discuss their emotional problems with their parents and teachers. And they must be provided enough scope to take part in different activities in school.

The teacher should try to find out those students who are emotionally disturbed. They should

try to solve their problems personally.

The teacher should not discriminate among the adolescents. The teacher must be known for his impartiality. Then only will he be able to enjoy the confidence of his students.

1.0 Definition of Child Labour

The International Labor Organization (ILO, 2004) defined child labour as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development. Also, child labour refers to any working activity that is physically, mentally, socially or morally harmful and dangerous to children, with interference in their education by depriving them of the chance to attend school, prematurely obliging them to leave school, or requiring them to combine schooling with extremely long and heavy work.

2.0 The Negative Effect of Child Labour on Human Capital Accumulation and Economic Development

One of the most significant problems in developing countries especially in Africa is the unpleasant incident of child labour. Children do labour to earn money by sacrificing their health, their education, and their normal development to maturity. The child labour exists prevalently in most countries in Africa. It has been a deep-rooted evil phenomenon, which delay the development of human capital accumulation and economic growth. Most African countries are lying on a stagnation situation or downward spiral in which poor performance in human development has been liable to poor economic growth and poverty, which consecutively discouraged human development achievements.

Nowadays, while most of developed countries are enjoying wealth and prosperity, some of developing nations and most third world countries in Africa are struggling themselves to combat the problem of child labour. The prevalence of child labour causes the children to occupy their lifetime with working, leaving school and education behind. The main aim for these children to work would be the wages gain from working in order to support household income. However, because of the time in a day is limited to 24 hours, there will be high probability for a working child to forgo schooling if they want to concentrate working to help their parents’ income. As working children become an adult without a sound education, their future generation soon is likely to do the same duty as they were child ago. As a result, there will be a lack of human capital improvement in one country even after generations, and thus in long-term will bring about stagnant economic development.

3.0 Child Labour in African Countries

The ILO is an international organisation charged to count with child labor. The ILO reported in 2004 that 218 million children engaged in economic activity globally, excluding child domestic labour (UNICEF, 2006). Within this number, 126 million or one in every six children aged 5-17 years were trapped in hazardous work. The ILO estimated that children represent 40-50 percent of all victims of forced labour, or 5.7 million children were caught in bonded and forced labour. Available data suggested that more boys than girls were economically active, but girls who are engaged in household chores and sibling childcare not be accounted for in these statistics (ILO, 2002). Children who were working in household of a third party or ’employer’ are particularly at risk to abuse and exploitation. The ILO estimates that more girls below age 16 were in domestic (household) service than in any other category child labour.

African continent has the highest percentage of economically active children. The ILO study showed that 41 percent of children in Africa continent are devoting to labour work (ILO, 2003). The sectors where child labour is most employed are agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. More than 30 percent of African children aged between 10 and 14 are working in agriculture sector. In most countries which are producing raw materials, children are used to work on agriculture estates of cocoa, coffee, and cotton. Also in Africa, the incident of child labour varies among areas in the continent. Child labour occupies nearly most of the teenagers’ population in the countries of central Africa. Meanwhile it is nearly absolutely lacking in South Africa, and the similar situation occurs in the nations of northern Africa.

As stated by the ILO in 2003, there are 400,000 child labourers in Rwanda. Within this number, there are 120,000 are considered to be engaged in the worst forms of child labour, while a number of 60,000 identified as child domestic workers. In Rwanda, children are also involved in prostitution in several large cities. The report showed that 94 percent of these child prostitutes lived in extreme poverty stricken, 40 percent had missing both of their parents, and 41 percent had never enroll themselves in schooling. In Zambia, according to the Zambian, there are a number of 595,000 child labourers in the country. Of these, 58 percent are below age 15, thus, disallowed for any kind of employment as controlled by the Employment of Young Persons Act.

According to the ILO in 2003, as much as 1.9 million children in Kenya, with age ranges between 5 and 17, are child labourers. Only 3.2 percent of this population has accomplished a secondary level (school) of education, and 12.7 percent had never been to school. In Kenya, during the peak coffee picking season, it was approximated that up to 30 percent of the coffee pickers are under age 15. In Tanzania, it has been estimated that 4,600 children working in small-scale mining. It is common to find children as young as eight digging thirty-meter underground in mines for at least eight hours per day. It is usually been carried out without proper light and ventilation, and child workers are exposed to risk of injury or death underground.

Furthermore, in Zimbabwe, it was approximated that 5 million children with ages between 5 and 17 are being compelled to labour work. While, a survey conducted on child labourers in small-scale mines in Madagascar found that 58 percent that population were aged 12 or under. In addition, only a third had being exposed to learn skills, and half were belonged to families that trapped in poverty stricken with bad living conditions. Moreover in Africa, a number of 120,000 children below the age of 18 have been forced into military labors such as child soldiers, or military messengers, cooks, porters, or sex slaves. An amount ranged 10,000-15,000 children from Mali are working on plantations in Cote d’Ivoire. Most of them are victims of child trafficking. It is estimated that 50,000 children are working as household servant in Morocco. In West Africa, an estimated 35,000 children are in commercial sexual exploitation.

The Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical area of the world with the highest rate of child labour. As stated by the ILO report, the high population’s growth rate in Sub-Saharan Africa corresponds with the increasing of poverty in the region (ILO, 2004). In addition, the HIV/Aids outspread hinders all effort against child labour although the report does show clear evident of improvement in gross school enrolments, where the primary school registrations in the area have raised by 38 percent between 1990 and 2000.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that in 2002, regarding child trafficking in Togo, asserted that the governments of western African countries had done fragile enforcement to curb the prevalent trafficking of child labour (Human Rights Watch, 2003). As reported by HRW, the local crisis of children trafficking was brought about by HIV/Aids. A large number of these children are orphans, compelled to work for survival after the death of their HIV- positive parents. The HRW asserted that children are forced into labour work in several countries in western Africa. The traffickers attract the children by promising them with professional training as well as sponsored schooling. The vast majority of these children were trafficked by neighbouring countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali. The incidence of child labour trafficking occurs in many paths, as the government didn’t execute strict enforcement to ban it. Girls were sold to work in the night markets, and during the day as baby sitters, and victims are generally subjected to physical violence and psychological abuse.

The countries of destination of child trafficking in general have power over economies of western Africa. The report by Institute of Tropical Agriculture in 2002 showed that 70 percent of world cocoa production made in western Africa (Boas, M. & Huser, A., 2006). From this statistics, 43 percent world cocoa production supplied by Cote d’Ivoire, 15 percent in Ghana, 7 percent in Nigeria, 4 percent in Cameroon, and the remains 1 percent in other regions in western Africa. In these supplier countries, the ripe cocoa is collected from plantation and processed by children. Children aged between 5 and 15, all came from poor background, were lured by the traffickers to leave their countries, even with forged labour contracts, were sold to the owners of agricultural estates. Often the children realised of their condition only afterwards, when they are forced into sheds and locked up inside. Children who ran away from the plantations disclosed of how they were victimised, exploited and tortured, and never received any pay.

4.0 Major Determinant of Child Labor

Child labour is an issue in worldwide concern, especially in least developed countries in Africa, with many governments officially declares laws that protect children from labour work. There is no single root of child labour in Africa, and the important factors that cause children to become labourers are wide-ranging. Indeed, the particular conditions will differ depending to the different background between children. In spite of this, the determinants of child labour may be categorised into two groups based on 1) demand determinants or market mechanism, and 2) supply determinants. This classification is based on the works by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Edmonds, E. V., 2003; Bhalotra, S., 2003). Demand side determinants are the factors which encourage an employer to employ children into labour work. While, supply side determinants are the factors which induce the parents or head of the households to make a decision about the exploitation of children’s time into labour work.

Demand side determinants of child labour are the composition of labour market, the current production technology, the weak law-making or weak implementation of legislation, children’s beneficial features for a specific work, small amount paid to children with extra working hours, and little bargaining power of children. In contrast, the supply side determinants of child labour origin from the household background. These include a range of socio-economic variables such as poverty, lack of educational and public facilities, unemployment of adults, and population pressure. These variables are associated with the decision making of the household to send the children to work.

5.0 Curbing the Child Labour in Africa: A Few Recommendations on Development Policy for Human Capital Improvement

Most countries in Africa prohibited the employ of children in economic activities, especially the worst form of child labour. This was due to its bad consequences of the children in their present and future time. However, most of law enforcement failed to curb child labour. Labour intensive industries and agricultural sectors will always welcome a huge demand for cheap labour, in other word, child workers. Moreover, parents are willingly to send their children working to increase household income in order to survive in poverty stricken. Drawing upon the historical experience of several countries, both economic factors and legal restrictions played a role in reducing child labour, although legislation appears to have been less significant. I suggested that banning child labour through law enforcement and legislation is an inappropriate action. This is because this action will reduce the welfare of people. The primary purpose of working is to earn money, to earn living. Parents submitted their children to labour work to help families’ income, to maintain their life survival. After studying the conditions child labour in several African countries, I would like to suggest some development policies that can be implemented by their governments in order to curb child labour, then improving the welfare of children in order to develop high human capital in Africa in the future. Those recommended policies are:

5.1 Reducing Household Poverty

The first and major cause of child labour is poverty. Absolute poverty as a synonym for extreme poverty is the lack of enough resources (such as financial resources) to ensure of obtaining basic life necessities. The poverty is concerned with the income level of the household. A strong negative relationship exists between child labour and total income of a household. The additional level of income will reduce the probability of a child to work. Most of the incident of child labour as a parental decision, where parents will only send their children to work when compelled to do so by poverty stricken. Therefore, when parents’ income surpasses some threshold, parents tend to withdraw the children out of labour market (Basu, K. & Van, P. H., 1998). A historical analysis has shown that the decline of child labour was highly associated with the rise of married women’s participation in the labour force (Cunningham, H., 2000). This is because the rise of married women’s participation in the labour force had caused the children’s contribution (income) to the economy of the working class family become less significant.

I would like to suggest for governments to implement the minimum wage legislation on adults. The increase in adults wage will decrease the population of child in labour market since fewer children in a family will have to work. The increase in income by implementing the minimum wage legislation will reduce the frequency of child labour. Therefore, the implementation of minimum wage law’s policy in African countries is an appropriate action in checking the stagnation of child labour.

I would like to recommend for the government to increase employment opportunities for women. Government ought to stimulate sectors of economies that highly associated with women, such as laundry, cleaning, cooking, and sewing. Poor families must also be allowed to have loan from financial institution, so that they will have opportunities to start their own businesses and economic activities. This will be an embarkment of a large scale poverty alleviation program and target income support, in purpose to keep children away from work market and attending schools.

5.2 Providing Better Quality of Education for Children

Evidence from communities’ areas in Ghana showed that the incidence of high children’s employment and the low school enrolment is caused by the bad quality of education (Ray, R., 2002). This has led to the lack of importance of education for children as viewed by most parents. The likelihood of full-time school attending could be increased by reducing the cost of schooling. The expansion of school allocation by government, which reduces the opportunity-cost of schooling, would decrease the number of working children, but attending school (Cigno, A., Rosati, F. C. & Tzannatos, Z., 2002).

I would like to advise for the government that the education policies should aim to improve the quality of schooling, and expansion in schooling subsidy must prove impressive in order to encourage parents keeping their children in schools rather than submitting them employed. Government policies should center on improving school infrastructure facilities and quality of schooling especially in rural areas. The quality of education will determine the parents’ awareness concerning the education route as a way to advance life status. The low quality of education will dispute the need of schooling for their children if to have a promising future with a stable and well-paid job. This kind of judgment is normally found among people communities with low income level because their occupations are commonly requiring no formal education attainment, but basic skills as a cheap labour.

I would like to put forward for the reduction of costs of schooling. This is purposely to reduce opportunity cost of schooling, in term of payment (salary) obtained from working children. Scholarships for schooling students should not for only school tuition fees, but must cover other benefits, such as school accessories like school uniforms and free meals in order to make education more attractive. The school enrolment, especially primary school enrolment is most essential for children to ensure of obtaining basic and necessary education before jumping into the higher stages of education. Students who are obliged to attend a longer years of education by compulsory education laws will make higher wages in their future as compared to others with less years of education. Therefore, public investment in improving school infrastructure will give rise to a significant beneficial effect to born better educated labour force in the future with higher productivity to the society.

5.3 Controlling the Family Size through Policies

Among fifteen countries with highest fertility rate in the world, the fourteen of them are belonged to African countries (United Nations, 2007). The high fertility and birth rate each year had caused to the large family size in Africa. And, the larger the number of children, so then the larger the total cost of living and rearing children. The big number of siblings had forced the elder siblings to working, instead of attending school. According to a study, this additional work increases with the number of younger siblings and the spacing between siblings. Because family sizes raise, the additional work for elder siblings will significantly be increased to help additional households income (Edmonds, E. V., 2006).

I would like to advocate for the government of those African countries to implement the one or two-child policy in their countries. This is purposely to decrease fertility rate in those countries. This policy can be adopted from the China one-child policy introduced in 1978. It was created by the Chinese government to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China. After the introduction of the one-child policy, the fertility rate in China fell from over three births per woman in 1980 to approximately 1.8 births in 2008.

In my point of view, the controlling of family size will reduce the total cost of rearing many children in a family. This will increase disposable income in a family, in which this income can be saved for future use and to finance good quality education for children. The government must promise a direct benefit for the only first one or two children in the family, such as free schooling or educational subsidies. This family size control may promise a better quality of children with high human capital, even with smaller numbers, rather than having a large number of children but with low human capital. This not only improve the welfare of each children, but also give to human capital improvement in Africa, and thus in long-term will bring about healthier economic development.

5.4 Introducing Modern Labour-Saving Technologies into Economic Sectors

The major characteristic of labour markets in most developing countries is a high proportion of employment of unskilled labour force in the informal sectors. This trait has led to a creation of large labour intensive market space with low-level of technology that encourages the demand for children to become labour force (Edmonds, E. V, 2003; Dinopoulos, E. & Zhao, L., 2007). Thus, the level of technology in an economy will determine both the supply and demand for child labour.

I would like to suggest that the introduction and adoption of modern labour-saving technologies as a tool to inhibit child labour. At a distance from raising agricultural productivity, the adoption of modern labour-saving technologies could free children from repetitive working duties in agriculture and thus increase their chances of attending school. Therefore, policies and programmes that promote the adoption of land and modern labour-saving technologies should be listed as policy tools to curb child labour in the African countries. The introduction of new technologies such as mechanization or automation in industries, and the use of improved strains and fertilizers in agricultural sector will reduce the demand for unskilled child labour. A study had also found that the returns to education will also increase because people understand the need for higher education attainment to fulfill the high demand for high-skilled labour. (Cigno, A., Rosati, F. C. & Tzannatos, Z., 2002). Thus, this will discourage the supply of child labour. This low motivation of supplying child labour and low interest to employ unskilled labour will further the declining of children exploitation into economic activities.

In my opinion, from the technological perspective, it should be noticed that children’s participation are unnecessary in the process of industrialisation because child workers keep low human capital stock. In addition to the least developed African countries, in most industries where children work, there are existing technologies that being utilised in developed countries. Thus, the employment of these modern technologies by African countries would replace tasks performed by child labour, and finally reduce child employment in productive economic activities.

I would also like to advise the African countries to welcome globalisation in their economic policies. The accepting of globalisation will improve capital market through foreign direct investment (FDI), and will generate technological and knowledge spillover. This will help introducing new modern labour-saving technologies as a tool to improve economic sectors, and at the same time will inhibit child labour. This is according to a study which had found that the forces of globalisation can curb the phenomenon of child labour through the trade policies that beneficial for modern sector, and the increase in FDI in modern sector that will reduce the demand of child labour without deteriorating the wage-income distribution. (Dinopoulos, E. & Zhao, L., 2007).

The purpose of this essay is to critically analyse two curriculum pedagogical approaches. The two approaches that will be discussed in this essay are Reggio Emilia and Montessori. There will be an in-depth analysis of the two philosophies and how they are different or similar to each other. It will also include the differing views on the image of a child, role of the teacher and the inclusion of parents and family. There will also be some discussion on the critics of both approaches and the relevance to Te Whariki.

Reggio Emilia (RE) is a small city in the Emilia Romagna region of Northern Italy. After the Second World War the people of RE urgently needed to build their lives, not only materially, but also socially and morally. In this time there was a powerful force behind the development of early childhood services (Thornton and Brunton, 2005). The women wanted to build a preschool to provide a new form of education that the next generation would not tolerate inequality and injustice. “There was a strong sense of hope for the future arising from the adversity of the past” (Thornton, 2005, p4). The Reggio philosophy was developed and shaped by the social and cultural influences in the area. Loris Malaguzzi was the inspiration behind the educational experience in Reggio Emilia.

Maria Montessori was born in the year 1870 in Central Italy. According to Standing (1957, p45) Montessori was a “strong minded, vivacious and determined child, displaying the kind of independence so highly valued in Montessori schools to this day”. Montessori graduated as a doctor in 1896 and was the first woman in Italy to do so. In her early clinical experience she became a supporter of social reform, mainly as it related to the well being of women and children. She argued that enhancing the quality of the environment in which children lived was a way of eliminating poverty, inequality, illness, and criminality. This argument became the foundations of Montessori’s life’s work. In 1907 she opened a school for slum children. The school was called ‘Children’s House’. It was an environment in which in children from the slums were advancing rapidly in learning. She than decided to abandoned her medical/academic careers and devoted her life to promoting her educational method (Feez, 2010).

Malaguzzi was a social constructivist and was influenced by some of the most renown progressive educators and psychologist such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Montessori, Dewey (Edwards, 2003). Malaguzzi includes Vygotsky’s concept of ‘Zone of Proximal’ as crucial to the foundations of children teacher relationships. There is also a value for the operation of thought and language together in building symbolic representation of thoughts, ideas and feelings (Berk, 2007) Malaguzzi believed that children were ‘social’ from birth, full of intelligence and active explorers (Gandini, 1997).

Montessori was influenced by the work of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Itard and Seguin. Montessori’s interest was more practical than theoretical, but her theoretical view was based on Rousseau’s work. Like Rousseau she argues that children think and learn differently then adults. Montessori education gives children freedom to explore the environment through their senses but they are given little external guidance on what to pay attention to and how to think about discoveries” (Feez, 2010). To find an approach that provided opportunities for freedom and at the same time helping children adapt to society, Montessori looked at the work of French doctor Itard and Seguin. It was Seguin method which Montessori used successfully to teach ‘deficient’ children in the 1980s, and when she used the same approach in 1907 to educate street children she was amazed at what unfolded.

The RE philosophy was influenced by Malaguzzi. Malaguzzi emphasises that the theory which provides the underpinnings for the Reggio approach requires ongoing communication and dialogue, teachers as co-researchers alongside children, and revisiting ideas, guides and practice. Children are seen as a ‘community of learners’. It recognises the importance of ways in which children learn and consider each child as gifted. Children with disabilities have the full participation into the structure and are spoken to as ‘children with special rights’ (Gandini, 1997). In the Reggio approach there is no predetermined curriculum. Short term and long term projects are developed from children’s interest, first hand experiences and their working theories about the world (Rinaldi, 2006).

Children are encouraged to grow in competence to represent and symbolise ideas, feelings through any of the hundred languages. The teacher follows the child’s interest and do not provide instructions for reading and writing, however they promote emergent literacy as children manipulate and communicate ideas and feelings. As children progress through the infant-toddler centre, or preschool, they stay with the same teachers. This provides opportunities for a strong relationship between the staff, children and their families to be nurtured over the long period.

The RE approach identifies the environment as a third teacher between children, parent and teachers. Malaguzzi describes the physical environment and the availability of resources “as the product of complex interactions, many of which can be realised only when the environment is a fully participating element (Thornton, 2005, p43). Teachers in a Reggio centre provide ‘amiable’ environments which encourages exploration, exchanges, and communication.

Montessori believed that her pedagogy was based on logical, scienctific inquiry. According to Montessori, from birth to three is the time of the ‘unconscious absorbent mind’ whereas age three to six is considered as time for the ‘conscious absorbent mind’. In both these times, the child seeks sensory input, regulation for movement, order and freedom to choose and explore deeply with interpretation in a carefully planned environment which encourages the child to choose well. In a Montessori classroom children are in mixed groups spanning from birth to three years and teachers move with the child through the three year cycle (Feez, 2010).

The exercises of practical life skills are an important part of the curriculum. It is based on ways people in the culture relate to each other socially, as well as ways in which they complete everyday tasks. Language also relates to the exercises of practical life, as children use it in different ways to interact and communicate with others. In a Montessori view any resource that is unrelated to the educational purpose of material has a potential to distract and confuse the child (Feez, 2010). Children have limited freedom to what they can and can not do in a Montessori classroom, for example to be disruptive, aggressive and disorderly.

The Montessori environment is planned ahead of time to ensure that children have as much freedom and independence as possible. The approach emphasises on real things in the environment which requires hands on interactions. A Montessori classroom allows opportunities for meaningful learning in self chosen activities, and purposeful activities which requires concentration (Feez, 2010).

The Reggio view of the child is central to its philosophy. The child is referred to as a ‘rich in potential, strong, powerful and competent’. “At the centre of the pedagogy is the child who is confident in building relationships; who holds his or her own values; who wants to be respected and valued for himself as well as holding a respect for others; who embodies a curiosity and open mindedness to all that is possible” (Thornton, 2005).

Children are encouraged to develop their own working theories of the world and to explore this in greater depth. Children ideas are respected so that children feel unafraid to make mistakes or reconstructing their ideas. Self confidence and self image is fostered through discussion which promotes creativity. The notion of ‘the hundred languages’ was Malaguzzi’s interpretation of recognising the value of all forms of expression and communication in which children interpret the world and represent their ideas and theories.

Montessori philosophy view children as intelligent, active, reality based self regulating and self righting. Montessori believed that in order for them to live a quality life, they need to be prepared as competent, responsible and adaptive citizens who are life long learners and problem solvers. Children’s free chosen activity is regarded as ‘work’. Through a Montessori lens children’s works is seen as orientation towards future achievements and play that involves purposeful effort and concentration. Montessori’s view on punishments and rewards to make children pay attention were regarded as ‘forced’ and ‘unnatural’. She saw it as a form of slavery from which children needed to be released (Feez, 2010).

The teachers in both approaches share a common goal in childrearing. They both regard themselves as nurtures, partners and guides to children. They depend on the environment as a pedagogical tool which is carefully prepared and aesthetically pleasing. Partnership with parents is highly valued in both approaches. However their contrasting view on a child’s learning has lead them act different roles in a classroom.

Reggio teachers are seen a learner, enthusiastically seeking new knowledge alongside children. Children and teachers are seen as co-researches in everyday process rather than a specialised activity. They provide tools, materials, resources and provide help when needed. Each class has two teachers who work collaboratively as a team. The teachers plan in collaboration with the pedagogista and the aterlierista. The pedagogista helps maintain high quality standards whereas the aterlierista promotes expression through different forms of media and symbol systems (Vecchi, 2010). Malaguzzi suggest that once children are helped to perceive themselves as authors and interventions, and to find the pleasure of inquiry, there motivation and interest will expand (Edwards, Gandini, Forman, 1998)

In a Montessori classroom teachers are considered as ‘directors’ which refers to someone who guides and draws others together. The role of the director is to provide a prepared environment and connect children with it. Montessori also emphasised the role of an educator as an observer rather than teacher. The method of observation still remains an important component of Montessori teacher training till this day (Torrence and Chattin-Mc Nicholas, 2009). The aim of the teacher is to help and encourage children to be independent, gain confidence and disciple so that there are minimal reasons for teachers to intervene (Feez, 2010). Teachers give children lessons (also called presentations) to show children how to use materials or how to act in the environment. Children are free to choose activities after they have had a lesson on how to do the activity. They intervene as little as possible to allow children to make good choices.

In both approaches parent/families play an important part in their child’s learning and development and are seen as partners alongside teachers. They are included in all decisions concerning their child and their input is highly valued. Parents receive extensive description about their children daily life and progress. Portfolios and other forms of children work maybe displayed and sent home as key intervals and transitions (Edwards, 1998).

Respecting relationships are considered one of the most essential components of the RE approach. The relationships established between parents, children and teachers are key elements in supports children’s learning and development. Relationships are built on reciprocal, requiring mutual trust and respect. The Reggio term ‘the pedagogy of listening’ emphasises listening as openness and wiliness to value the point of others.

The first preschools were founded by the parents as a symbolic of hope and desire of better futures for their children. Therefore parental participation has always been important part of the Reggio approach. At the time a child enters an infant-toddler centre/preschool, the parents are considered as active participants in the ongoing educational process. The programme is designed to make families feel at home and an important part of the structure. This gives educators the opportunity to get to know families and understand their unique perspective of their own child.

The Montessori approach includes parent/families in learning that concerns their child. Strong relationships are established between teachers and parents to follow the child’s progress in home and classroom. Regular dialogue and written feedback gives parents information about their child’s experiences and learning. Teachers provide suggestion on how parents can continue to use the Montessori approach at home. Parents are welcome to borrow resources and books and have many opportunities to learn about the Montessori philosophy and practice.

One criticism to the RE approach is regarding the role of teachers as co-researchers along side children. Malaguzzi called this open review method ‘a circle of idea’. The idea that children learn through interactions and exploration of ideas with educators is regarded as ‘thinking critically about difficult questions’ rather than ‘problem solving’.

Another criticism is placed on the importance of the environment in the Reggio approach. The environment is referred to as ‘the third teacher’. It is argued that if the Reggio focus is on children and interactions and the use of space further encourages and supports this interactions and that the curriculum is adaptable to the changing interest to the child, so too does the design and environment change. Therefore the environment is a ‘ship of motion’ rather than an ‘unchangeable landmark’ (Rinaldi, 2006).

It is argued that Montessori education does not allow children the opportunity for ‘learning to learn’. In a Montessori view a child had ‘learned’ when they correctly finished the activity. It is an end state reached when the task is mastered. According to Crain (2011) in the ‘real’ world children need to learn how to learn, to quickly adapt to changing environments and to create new environments. The Montessori approach does not allow for critical thinking or exploration it is rather a method of perfection.

Freedom for initiative and creativity is limited. Teachers have firm rules about how tasks are done, and a child finds a way to manipulate the material which they are happy with, the teacher would not consider this satisfactory. The teacher will then encourage the child to keep working on the same activity until is completed the way it should be. This hinders children imagination and creativity (Gardner, 1966).

Finally, both approaches make significant links Te Whariki. The principles of ‘Family and Community’ and ‘Relationships’ shows relevance to both approaches as parent/family are considered ‘partners’ in the learning of their children. The strand of well being and belonging is evident in both approaches, as teachers support each individual child learning and development. Well being (Goal 1) supports the Montessori practice of ‘practical skills’ where the children learn self help and self care skills (Ministry of Education, 1996).

The strand of Contribution supports RE practice to explore as groups or individuals. Each child has the opportunity to express their idea. Group projects encourage children to learn with and along side others. The strand of Communication relates more to Reggio Emilia, than it does to Montessori practice. Communication and dialogue is an important tool which teachers use to extend children’s learning. Teachers support and allow children to be creative and expressive. This goal of non verbal and verbal communication shows relevance to the ‘Hundred Languages’ (Edwards, 1998).

The strand of exploration is also more relevant to the Reggio Emilia approach than Montessori, as Montessori is more structured and tasks are demonstrated on how it ‘should be done’, therefore it does not really allow for exploration. Exploration is seen a vital concept in the Reggio approach as teacher recognise the important of spontaneous play and allow children to follow their interest in more depth. Teachers become co-researchers with children to develop working theories and make sense of the world (MOE, 1996)

In conclusion, RE and Montessori are both ‘child-centred’ approaches and have many similarities as well as differences. Both approaches were established to turn away from violence/war and to give children the opportunity to realise their full potential as creative, intelligent individuals. In both approaches children are viewed as active partners in their own development and learning. The environment serves as a pedagogical tool for teachers to provide an aesthetically pleasing environment which provides children with freedom and opportunities for exploration. The teacher plays an important part in both approaches; however their contrasting views on the nature of children and their learning lead them to act different roles. A Reggio Teacher regards themselves as ‘co-researchers’ alongside children, whereas a Montessori teacher sees themselves as a ‘director’ or ‘observer’. In both approaches parents are seen as equal partners in their child learning and development. Overall, the Reggio Emilia approach provides children with opportunities for open ended exploration, whereas the Montessori approach is more structured and aims to provide opportunities for children to chose freely and gain independence.

Currently we suffer from overpopulation in our prisons today. One of the main reasons is due to a constant increasing flow of non-violent drug offenders being sentenced to serve time. Drugs are a major problem in our country, so we must be proactive in our efforts and try to come up with programs that would steer youth away from initial drug use that would potentially lead to future incarceration. There are many programs that try to do just that. These programs focus on the youth to try and keep them captivated in healthier venues as opposed to starting drug use or a life of crime. These programs have seen much success in the areas that they are in by means of crime prevention. This paper will discuss the programs and how they actually help in crime prevention by helping the youth within those communities.

Adult-supervised, youth-development afterschool prevention programs reduce the onset or intensity of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. These programs serve many important purposes including:

Positive interaction with and supervision by adults

Enrichment programs and activities help youth develop drug/alcohol free hobbies

Occupying free time with positive choices in a supervised element

Helps create a service ethic through community service

Development of social skills and the keys to just say no to drugs and alcohol

The programs with the most positive results tend to be those that combine fun with structure and teach prevention through activities. “When afterschool prevention programs, run by Boys and Girls Clubs, were started in selected public housing developments in New York, drug use, presence of crack cocaine use, police reports of drug activity all decreased significantly. Drug activity decreased 22%, juvenile arrests dropped 13%, and vandalism in the public housing developments decreased 12.5%, and parental involvement increased, compared with public housing developments that were not selected to implement the afterschool programs. The program included structured, adult-supervised recreation and youth development activities combined with a focused prevention activity, Smart Moves, developed by the Boys & Girls Clubs specifically for non-classroom settings” (Bailey, 1998).

Worldwide over the past couple of decades, we have seen an increase in the amount of recreational organizations being created. Recognizing the increasing jail and prison populations, these places were constructed to benefit the entire community in the long run. These facilities have many things that lured youth in such as batting cages, pools, tracks to run, basketball, weight rooms, a healthy and productive alternative to running around on the streets. Programs that engage the youth while keeping them on a straightened path is what will really make the difference in a community.

One organization that incorporates healthy alternatives to substance abuse and criminal activity in youths is The Boys & Girls Clubs of America. This organization is among the top of the lists of facilities to aid in crime prevention in youth’s. Their programs are nationally recognized as well as tested and proved effective in addressing problems that modern day youths face as well as showing them tools to make them successful throughout their lives’. Programs are available nationwide and focus on areas such as alcohol and drug prevention, various areas of education, gang prevention, pregnancy prevention, athletics, the environment and leadership development. The Boys & Girls Clubs of America commend accomplishments while also adding an extra goal for young adults to aspire for, such as the opportunity to meet important role models on a global scale; these actions have led to a high success rate within the organization. One of the ways that the Boys & Girls Clubs of America commend accomplishments through their organization is through their own “Youth of the Year” awards. These awards are given out to those who show outstanding contributions to the Club, family, and community as well. Each state produces a winner and the winners from each state then compete for the title of “National Youth of the Year”; with the ultimate Youth of the Year being recognized by the President of the United States, which is the ultimate honor (Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 2007). The hopes of this competition is to instill in these young adults that they can accomplish any dream if the put their mind to it and stay away from drugs and alcohol or resorting to violence.

There are over 2,000 YMCA’s worldwide, which makes it the “largest not-for-profit community service organization in America working to meet the health and human service needs of 20.2 million men, women and children in 10,000 communities in the United States. YMCAs are at the heart of community life across the country: 42 million families and 72 million households are located within three miles of a YMCA” (YMCA, 2007). Because of their non-profit services and unique locations around the world, 20.1 million members have joined these clubs, 9.5 million of which are under the age of 18. Thousands of Y’s work with local elementary, middle, and high schools, hospitals, and churches to promote child care and teen leadership and provides services that they may need. So many kids today are starting down the wrong paths in life at earlier ages. The fact the children are being left alone and unattended at their homes between the hours that they get out of school until their parents get home is not helping the matter. Kids are often taking advantage of the situation and doing whatever they want. If this continues to happen for some time before they get caught, they might not stop when asked to. Lucky for us, YMCA’s is the largest providers of childcare in the United States, operating nearly 10,000 childcare sites throughout the United States providing affordable and high quality care to more than a half million children. The YMCA does also “serve nearly 10 million children under the age of 18 through activities such as camping, sports, and afterschool programs. YMCAs are the largest employers of teenagers in the country” (YMCA, 2007).

YMCA’s nationwide even offer an After School Program. It is a safe and caring environment in your child’s own school that is offered at school dismissal (including scheduled half days) until 6:00 PM and before school care begins at 7:00 AM until school begins. You can choose between 2-5 days a week and they also offer childcare on holidays and snow days. During this time your children participate in arts and crafts, games, gym activities, group activities, special events, and trips. Homework time and help is also provided, as well as an afternoon snack. And you don’t have to worry about the type of people that are watching your kids because they are just as much qualified to work with children as are teachers. “Our staff members are selected from a wide range of applicants who undergo strict background checks, most of whom have been with us for several years” (YMCA, 2007).

This next organization is about taking the next step and preparing youth for their future involvement in the workforce. The Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) was created in 1996 in order to consolidate resources and provide the City of New York with higher-quality, more efficient youth and family programming. Our central task is administering available city, state, and federal funds to strong and effective community-based organizations (NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, 2007). DYCD funds a wide range of innovative, practical and quality programs that positively impact youth and communities. These programs include but are not limited to: Runaway and Homeless Youth Outreach, Youth Workforce Development, Corporate Internships for Youth, Summer Youth Employment Program, and the nation’s largest municipally funded Out-of-School Time initiative. It is programs like these that we need to see more of, programs that prepare young teens for success, sending them off on internships to meet well-known successful people. We need to raise their hopes and help them realize that their dreams can become reality.

Like the YMCA, the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) also has after school programs. With the increased number of parents entering the workforce, the need for expanded quality after-school services to support young people and their families is a must. The DYCD supports two major after-school initiatives: the Out-of-School Time Program and the Beacon Program. As previously stated, the Out-of-School Time (OST) Program is the largest after-school program throughout the nation. The programs offered are free of charge and offer an equal balance between recreational activities, the arts, sports, and academic tutoring and support for elementary school students throughout high school. OST programs operate on most school holidays to meet the needs of working parents (NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, 2007). The Beacon Program is slightly different in that it was designed for kid’s ages 16-21. In this program, young adults are offered the experience of academic support and college preparatory, sports such as basketball and martial arts, as well as art infused themes such as photography. These centers operate six days and 42 hours a week in the afternoons and evenings, and on weekends.

We’ve explored the opportunities of childcare and support during the day and after school hours, but what are these children to do at night? Is this not the most popular time for individuals go out, cause mischief, and commit crimes? What can be done to attempt to suppress this? Seattle Parks and Recreation’s new Late Night Program could very well be the answer. The Late Night Recreation Program is a fun, safe environment for high-risk Seattle youth. “Our goal is to save the lives of our youth, create opportunities for success and provide positive alternatives to drugs, gangs, and other undesirable activities,” stated Betty Jean Brooks the Interim Superintendent. The Late Night Recreation Program targets youth’s most prone to harmful behavior and shows them the possibility of having a positive future. It offers a variety of activities: educational services such as tutoring, computer and teen parenting programs, inter-cultural activities such as ethnic dance and bead-making and athletic activities such as basketball, volleyball, martial arts and other sports. According to the Seattle Police Department, crime has been reduced an average of 30 percent near the Late Night centers.

A new program has also come about in Vancouver and Richmond called Night Hoops: Nocturnal Basketball. Night Hoops is a late night basketball program for youth 13-18 yrs. of age. Its goal is to use basketball as a vehicle to promote asset development in a supported environment. Night Hoops offers youths the opportunity to experience the thrill of playing on an organized basketball team. The youth really benefits from having something as fun and positive as this. Those who need an alternative to where they spend their Friday and Saturday nights don’t have to look far. Youth who are experiencing difficulties at home, in school, and would benefit from physical activity and being around positive role models would be perfect candidates.

Religious Youth Group organizations put on by local churches is also an option. Along with religious education classes for children, these groups offer programs for youth age 12 – 19. The First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio has created two different groups: Club M2U and YRUU. Club M2U is for Middle School students (grades 6 – 8). Focus is on having fun, making friends, and doing projects together. Some of their recent activities have been ice skating, collecting school supplies for hurricane victims, and planning an Animal Dedication service for the entire church. The YRUU serves youth from 14-19 years old. Guided by national goals and purposes, each local group determines its own vision. The five components of balanced youth programming are Worship, Community Building, Social Action, Learning, and Leadership. Youth in this program have many opportunities to grow into leadership at group, congregational, district, and continental levels. There is a youth group similar to this where I live. It is held on Friday nights from 8-midnight. There is a lesson service for each group of kids (10-14 and 15-21) in the beginning and then the last 2 hours we are free to partake in recreational activities such as basketball, volleyball, floor hockey, Frisbee, football, etc. And what I thought was great was to see all these other kids from other towns coming over to be a part of this event. It is really quite impressive for a word of mouth establishment.

With all the opportunities the youths have within their reach it is still beyond me why so many become involved in breaking the law. The continuation of education these young minds of how bad gangs and drugs and violence are is most important, and not only after school but in school as well. The G.R.E.A.T. Program (Gang Resistance Education and Training) is a school-based, law enforcement officer-instructed classroom curriculum that is intended as an immunization against delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership. G.R.E.A.T. lessons focus on providing life skills to students to help them avoid using delinquent behavior and violence to solve problems. Because this is a four-component program (elementary school, middle school, high school, and summer classes) it is not something that is easily forgotten. It would be a major problem and of no significance if they only taught it to you in one of those sections. If you were taught it at a young age, you might not understand and often forget and if you were taught it in high school you might laugh at the program and not pay attention at all. The thoroughness throughout the years is the most effective form of education.

The other program that is offered to you through school is the D.A.R.E. program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). This is one of the highly acclaimed programs that give kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. This is a series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. Because this is a police officer led discussion, I feel that with the powerful authority figure you can get more across to the kids and they are more apt to listen to what he/she is saying. Once the students understand and commit to memory what it is the officer is saying they can then precede through life not having to worry about falling victim to the perils of crime.

As you can see, there are countless organizations that are trying harder and harder every day to grow and promote their establishments so that there will be less crime. We can’t expect the children to make all the decisions and to know that all these programs are out there either. Parents need to look into these types of organizations around their area for their children and suggest them. The children are not going to know about them without the parents help. Maybe a late night basketball program is exactly what your son/daughter wants and you just didn’t know because you never brought it to their attention. Youth groups are a great way to meet new people in a safe and friendly environment. If they still seem uninterested there is still the trial and error approach. Tell them that you and he/she will go once, just to see if they like it or if there is anything there that they are interested in. YMCA’s and the Boys & Girls Clubs have almost anything you could possible want to do. You can’t go wrong here so use it as a reserve option. The effort is being made to help, but this isn’t a one-way street. Parents, let your children know about the opportunities they are missing out on that will help keep them out of living a life of crime.

Three Little Pigs was chosen because children are familiar with the classic story. It is engaging for both girls and boys and allows a strong context for a range of arts activities in drama, puppetry, musical movement as well as a small world play of a series of arts activities. Activities are planned for five-year-old children as children by age 5 would have attained the basic developmental milestones of language development (Conti-Ramsden & Durkin, 2011).

The story of Three Little Pigs has patterns of structure. The first little pig met a man carrying straw and built his house with straw. The second little pig met a man carrying sticks and built his house with sticks. The third little pig met a man with bricks and built his house with bricks. A wolf came and said the line “Little pig, little pig, let me in” three times. The wolf huffed and puffed three times.

The story carries repetitive catchy phrases,

‘Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!’

‘I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!’

So the wolf huffed and puffed and blew the house down!’

The moral of the story teaches children not to open door to strangers and let strangers in.

The Three Little Pigs is told through dramatization and role-play using finger puppets, props and tone of voice.

This paper highlights the aims and values of the activities and explains how learning is being structured and the skills that can be developed in drama.

Creativity and Imagination in Arts Education

We live in a culture where children are raised with passive life experiences. Their toys are highly functional and commercially constructed. But children are by nature imaginative and curious. Their imagination and creation are not nurtured and developed. Children’s play is losing significance to paper and pencil type of education that adults have come to view as important (Hendy & Toon, 2001).

Society needs people who are creative and imaginative to enable problem solving and make connections. Society then has to start with its youngest members to encourage their creativity and imagination. Children should be motivated and given opportunities to express their creativity. Society needs to nurture children to think creatively, play with ideas and materials, deal with changes and the unexpected, respond to such changes, take risks, learn empathy and be sociable. Creativity and imagination make us human (Duffy, 1998).

Adult attitude is important in promoting creativity and imagination. Such attitudes create the right emotional environment. Equally important are physical settings and time set aside to allow opportunities for creativity and imagination (Duffy, 1998).

Arts and the curriculum

The arts have long been associated with a private experience of feeling good, living in a dream world, and an escape from reality. Swanwick (1988) argues that we become more conscious through the arts. Teaching the arts well promotes development in other learning areas. In drama there is physical education and language development. Music has its own vocabulary as in tempo, pulse and dynamics. Drawing is about line, texture and shape. If the arts can become part of the curriculum children have learning opportunities for personal and social-emotional development (Arts in Schools Project, 1990).

According to Swanwick (1988) the arts are naturally playful and playfulness is an important part of being human. Children play. Play is what children do. In play, there are elements which promote learning through the arts. Children gain mastery of skills, enhanced their imitation and are engaged in imaginative play.

Drama

When young children engage in dramatic play, they take on a different identity and manipulate the character. They develop their ability to understand and make sense of the world around them by making connections (Hendy & Toon, 2001).

Games are adapted to the Three Little Pigs. Children listen to the name called for straw, stick, brick and house. They are told rules of the games. Children play and learn to play by the rules.

When children are invited to make images from the story with their body and facial expression they step into the role of the character. They imitate the teacher in role and friends or stretch their creativity and imagination with their own body movement and facial expression. The other children in the circle make sound effects with their vocals. The simple act of dramatization allows children to master the skills of speaking to sound like another self. They learn to take turns and respect the other’s voice and body movement. Together and being together children make dramatic meaning (Swanwick, 1998).

The teacher uses another approach of dramatization by getting children to make music and use instruments for making sound effects. Music is incorporated in the drama play. With the teacher’s guidance children experiment with the musical instruments until they get the sound that makes one think of the wolf blowing down the houses. For a different outcome, the teacher in role selects the instruments and guides children to listen to the tempo and act out the mood of the scene of the wolf puffing, huffing and blowing down the houses. Blowing down the house of straw is easy for the wolf so the mood is soft. The easy and soft mood changes with the house of straw and becomes heavy, angry and even dangerous when the wolf tries to blow down the house of brick. This activity is a learning point for children to take instructions, keep a consistent rhythm and work with others. It encourages children to enjoy making music and listening to music. Children are exposed to music and can develop musical ability through their active engagement. Children delight in sound and rhythm (Sanwick, 1988).

Drama should not be boring (Duffy, 1998). To add a sense of excitement the teacher tells an imaginative story that Mother Pig receives a letter from one of the little pigs. She has lost her reading glasses. Children are invited to read out the letter for her through role-play as the little pig. They decide for themselves and create their own story.

Children’s imagination is further stretched when they discuss the character of the wolf. They compare the wolf to other wolves in Red Riding Hood and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. This activity promotes language and cognitive thinking as children learn to identify the animated characteristics of the wolf and compare one to the other and another.

The original version of the story is told through a drama play. The teacher in role becomes the wolf who is brought to trial for blowing down the houses and eating the little pigs. Children field questions and demand explanations from the wolf to account for his crimes. Teacher and children work together to make a new story. This activity brings about a sense of tension and excitement.

The teacher creates space for children to make their own small world play area. A number of skills can be developed in this play area. Children learn to make a finger puppet. They choose and pick materials to make their own puppets. They compare, contrast and experiment with colour, texture, lines and shapes. They acquire the skill by trial and error or copy the teacher’s puppets. Such mastery of judgement gives children a sense of achievement.

When children play with finger puppet, the puppet becomes alive. They talk to the puppet and say what they feel. In imaginative play they experiment with the different cries the wolf make to blow down the three different houses. They become the little pigs and experiment with the different emotions the pig experience when the wolf calls.

Children learn to be sociable as they listen to each other and take turns. They learn about cooperation and accepting ideas and wishes of another. Emotions are released in a healthy way as children use finger puppets to express their feelings and concerns. Language development is enhanced as they experiment with different voices and characters.

We live in a time where learning is measured and tested in paper and pencil with emphasis in basic literacy and numeracy skills. We should bear in mind the importance of creativity and imagination in its own right and the positive impact of creativity and imagination on other learning areas. A curriculum that is enriched with creativity and imagination opens up avenues for children to develop skills, knowledge, attitudes and aptitudes in the present and for the future (Duffy, 1998).

Children become the adults we want them to be – resourceful, innovative and confident. As cited by Duffy (1998) quoting Oscar Wilde, we are raising a generation who “know the price of everything and the value of nothing” (p.14).

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