Early childhood development centre opened in Madaklasht

CHITRAL, Nov 30: An Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD) constructed by Institute for Rural ducation and Development (IREAD) in Madaklasht valley was inaugurated by Dr. Noor Jaufar, the director and CEO IREAD. Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest highlighted the importance of ECD education . He said education of a child starts in the womb of the mother. Keeping this fact in view IREAD constructed 13 ECD centres around the world including India, Uganda and Cambodia and nine out of them had been established in Chitral. He said, “Mulana Hazir Imam lays great emphasis on ECD education and he was greatly impressed by the research of Dr. Fraser Mustard. Dr. Mustard research on early childhood education which was later picked by World Bank and published in its online publication. In his research Dr. Mustard selected 17000 children, half of them attended regular ECD centres while the rest were unable to attend ECD centres. Later, all the 17000 children were admitted to the same school and the result was very interesting. Those who attended regular ECD centres showed better family relationship, better nutritional status. There was 50% less dropout among the ECD centre going children,70% of them made it to the top universities and got better employment. Drug use among them was almost zéro. Dr. Noor Jaufar said American President Barak Obama had allocated a huge chunk of money for ECD education in the last year budget. Dr. Jaufar emphasised that all the children of three years must be admitted in ECD centres and his organization had provided 500 books to Madaklasht centre. He thanked the local community for taking keen interest in the construction of the ECD building.Speaking on the occasion, Noor Azam, head teacher Aga Khan school Madaklasht said that the step taken by IREAD was very commendable. He said the organization had not only constructed three classrooms here but also secured the future of the children of the area. At the end, Mr. Mir Afzal, president Shia Imami Ismaili Local Council for Madaklasht, thanked IREAD, its director and CEO Mr. Noor Jaufar for opening the centre for the children of Madaklasht valley. General Manager AKESP, Mir Zaman and project director IREAD Mr. Zuhran Shah were also present on the occasion.]]>