Setting up a Children’s Centre was Vince’s idea. He had been
working in the UK when the Sure-Start model had been disseminated nationally.
He experienced firsthand how Sure Start had revolutionized support and
provision for children and families in small communities, and contributed
significantly to the development within these areas. To this day these centres
remain key features in communities. The idea? They are to be a one stop-shop
for all early year needs. Needless to say therefore, a multi- disciplinary and
multi-professional set-up is necessary in order to improve the social,
educational, and health outcomes of the children. Children Centres can even
provide counselling and courses for parents with the view that this will
indirectly benefit the child. National
reviews and audits have no doubt confirmed the success of Sure Start in England.
And this is the vision for MTCC- Mother Teresa Children
Centre, to base it on an evidence based, tried and tested success story, the
Sure Start model, right down to the training of all staff to Sure-Start
standards, to the staff-child ratios in day care. An extremely tall order when
taking into account the complete lack of infrastructure in child services in Malawi,
which makes it so difficult to sustain a multi-professional set-up in the long
run. Ideally a wide range of professionals would use the children centre as a
base at frequent intervals to provide the various services. For instance
prenatal and antenatal healthcare and advice by health visitors and midwives; advice
and support on parenting; speech and language therapy; child protection
officers and the list goes on. However, in a place like Malawi where the
national number of nurses at one point was lower than the number of Malawian nurses
between Liverpool and Manchester (the government down-graded the course so that
graduates wouldn’t qualify for employment with the NHS in order to retain them
in the country), you can appreciate the difficulty there is in maintaining consistent
multi-agency provision.
How significant would something like MTCC be in a place like
Malawi then? Well, when you consider that in terms of early year provisions in
Malawi, it is of course only private, a luxury exclusive to the upper-middle
class and with no official equivalent to Ofsted, even these private nurseries
don’t come close to your average sure-start centres in the UK. Education is
free for 6-14 year olds. The average number of students at a typical primary
school varies from 4-5000, and often up to 7000, with approximately 60
teachers. You can do the Maths, how many students per teacher per classroom.
Most children also have to pass selection exams to continue to the next
academic year, your average student that reaches secondary school has to
attempt about three times in order to continue. Drop-out rates are therefore
high, and girls in particular start getting used more and more at home for
domestic help, their numbers drop quite significantly.
I had never before fully appreciated how the British
Education system fosters such a wide range of skills in children, that we take
right through to adulthood, and take for granted, until I came here. I mean,
we’re far from perfect, but when you consider the above ratios in Malawi,
you’re left with an education system that can just about provide parrot fashion
reiteration whilst you rock backwards and forwards with your 100 or so other
peers in class, with a complete lack of opportunity to develop skills such as
creativity, thinking outside the box, problem solving, curiosity....
And you have to wonder, how many of the current problems
here are as a consequence of this. It seems to come across. There seem to be
the same ongoing problems, and things come to a complete stand-still when
anything goes wrong.
In light of this therefore, when you consider the staff to
child ratios for 0-2 year olds at MTCC, which is 1-3, and 1-8 for 2-6 year
olds, you then begin to appreciate the significance of this in the context of
the current Malawian Education System. The volunteers at MTCC are rather
confident that this is probably one of the best early year centres in Malawi.
So, where are we at with MTCC? The north site still needs to
be completed. The other site however is open. Three rooms are operating and
provide day care: the baby room, the toddler room, and pre-school. There are 30
children so far. There are three room leaders, one for each room, all three are
volunteers from the UK. And at present there are 55 care-givers that are in the
practical stage of their diploma course in child-care. The view is, the
strongest candidates who are well-trained will continue their employment at the
CC. The child-care diploma course? An absolutely amazing feat. Two volunteers
who have been here for 18 months have single-handedly adapted and developed the
Malawian Early Years curriculum (originally written by a member of UNICEF) into this course, and have taught
and delivered it. Once the care-givers qualify the hope is they will be apt to
teach the Malawian Early Year Curriculum to a high standard. They are leaving
in a few months, and I will continue with this, as well as take on some of the
management responsibilities. So, it goes without saying, I am quite anxious.
Marion and David are impossible acts to follow. Marion did initially consider to
stick with the British Early Years Foundation, but then decided against it to
ensure the children receive a Malawi-centric education.
I was initially under the impression that in order to
financially sustain the free places that MTCC are offering the most vulnerable children
from the local village, just under half of all allocated places need to be
fully paid for- the fee paying children. However, that isn’t the case, the
fee-paying children that enrol are only paying for their own places. The cost
of the free places will be covered by sponsorship; some locally, others from UK
contacts through the volunteers here.
So, why have a mix of fee-paying and sponsored children at
the centre? Why not just have all the places as sponsored? In order to maintain
a good social balance. What better way to build the aspirations of these sponsored
children, but to put them alongside their privileged peers. When MTCC reach
full capacity, they can provide day care for approximately 250 children. The
idea is, 100 will be fee-paying, 100 will be sponsored, and 50 will receive
subsidized rates if their parents are working for Beehive (Beehive will cover the
remaining costs). We currently have just 4 fee-paying children. Now, although
at present we have the money to allocate further places for the children of
Beehive employees, and also for sponsored places, we’re holding off until we
have more fee-paying children for fear that upper-middle class parents might
not want to send their children here, if there are too many children from
severely deprived areas of Chilomoni.
This has been my first task starting here. Promoting the
profile of MTCC locally and advertising special offers on available places
targeted exclusively at the upper-middle class of Blantyre, in order to
increase the number of fee-paying children that enrol. Now, based on the standards
of MTCC, it should be as easy as getting the parents through the door, the
place should sell itself. With this in mind I organised a ‘fun’ day- (a teddy
bear tea party) this Saturday just gone, advertising specifically in the
privileged areas of Blantyre. Although it was a great day in so many ways, and
many children came, we seemed to have just one or two potential fee-paying
parents attend. This seems to be the challenge, getting people through the
door. There is a reluctance to come to Chilomoni, which is perceived as a township.
To conclude my sentiments on early year provision, I once
carried out a systematic research review on longitudinal studies that
investigated the relationship between a series of factors present during the
early years of life, with long term outcomes for the individual. The
significance of these factors such as early attachment, positive parenting, nutrition,
play.... is absolutely astounding.
So, when I think about this in the context of
our society that is geared up to act reactively when dealing with our problems
today, it brings the concept of early intervention into its own league. And I
think it doesn’t get earlier than investing in provision for the first few
years.