Zubair Khan Changvani is sitting in his office with a number of books on his table. He is the principal of a private school. Rate lists and details of commissions offered by different publishing houses are spread out in front of him. He is carefully comparing the rates and commissions, so that publishers could be awarded contracts for providing books for early childhood education in all branches of his school system.

Changvani has already given a cursory glance at all books provided by the publishers. Of course, his main consideration is not the content of the books, but the commission offered on each book by the publishers. Finally, he reaches a decision and selects some publishers, who have offered the highest commission. He has selected textbooks for early childhood education at all six branches of his school system. He will now issue an office order for the administrators of the school branches to cooperate with the selected publishers and send details of the books sold on daily basis, so that the commission could be deducted from the total amount.

One must have gathered from the above lines what is a typical way adopted by the majority of private schools, or school systems, to select textbooks for early childhood education all over the country. But is it the right way to select textbooks for the new generation? Who sets the syllabus for the children of 4-8 years age group? Who writes these books? What impact will these books have on the kids? Nobody knows. No study has ever been conducted in the country to analyse the content of these books. No research has ever been launched to check suitability of the textbooks for the children of this age group.

Educationists the world over believe that setting the syllabus for early childhood and writing textbooks for children of the age group of 4-8 years are the most important and crucial tasks. The first eight years in the life of an individual is referred to as early childhood. This phase determines the future of a child, not just in terms of his education, but also his abilities, personality, individuality and success.

It is very important to provide a child proper early childhood education so that he/she can develop properly. During this phase, a child’s mind rapidly develops and as they say, "the wiring of the brain is laid down". The mental, emotional, social and educational growth of a child is determined by his educational experiences and relationships received and built during his first eight years.

According to educationists, early childhood curriculum builds the foundation of a child’s future. A well developed and designed kindergarten curriculum proves instrumental in the growth of a child’s mental abilities. There is dire a need that a syllabus is set for this age group by educationists, with the help of psychologists, keeping in view the country’s religious, moral and social norms.

However, regrettably, there is no effective mechanism in the country to develop special syllabus for this very important age group of children in the public sector. Also, there is no effective check on the private sector schools and publishers, and they are free to teach children in their early years in schools whatever they want.

In the private sectors, various efforts have been made from time to time to provide for the needs of this age group. One of such effort was made last year when the early childhood education syllabus was launched in May 2012. It was planned to be piloted in 101 of the total 390 government schools, reconstructed in flood-hit areas of southern Punjab, by the Plan International Pakistan, an international, humanitarian, child-focused development organisation, working in Pakistan as well as other countries of the world.

Rashid Javed, country director of the Plan International Pakistan, says that the early childhood education syllabus emphasises provision of quality education in order to produce knowledgeable and confident leaders for tomorrow. He says that the syllabus has been developed after a year’s research, and it focused on six ‘learning areas’. Lessons about personal and social development, language, creative arts, health and hygiene, basic mathematical concepts and general knowledge regarding the world around the child have been included in the textbooks for the kids in the age group of 4 to 8 years.

Nasira Habib, the founder and director of Khoj, an NGO, who played an important role in preparation of the syllabus, tells TNS that each learning area had a list of expected outcomes, which could be measured with the help of a list of competencies. She says that after the final draft was submitted in October 2011, pilot projects were run at seven community centres in Chakwal, Vehari and Islamabad.

Nasira describes the teaching method prevalent in most schools across the province as ‘regimented’. The educationist says that deep down, our society is still under the impression that you can’t teach without being strict or without corporal punishment. She says the early childhood education syllabus has incorporated elements of our heritage -- local stories and games.

About the new syllabus, Nasira says that ideally 15 children should make up a ‘learning group’. If there are more than 20 students, she adds, it will be best to divide them into two groups. The syllabus can be covered in 32 weeks of active teaching, with each week following a particular theme. The last week prepares the child for school, with teachers focusing on making the child ready for organised schooling, explains the educationist.

Nasira regrets the lack of designated early childhood education centres in the Punjab. There are only 32 centres in 36 districts. She says that implementation of early education would be difficult because "70 per cent of rural primary schools in the Punjab are single classroom schools." She says that while developing the syllabus, budgetary constraints were kept in mind.

Talking to TNS, Sofia Aziz, the learning adviser for Plan International Pakistan, said that such initiatives would help standardise pre-primary schooling. She also hoped that the NGO would launch the syllabus in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh later this year. She said that the organisation was going to send out the syllabus developed to all government schools in the province, and hoped that the programme of early childhood education would also be initiated in private schools.

There is no harm in engaging private sector, especially NGOs working in the field of education, for preparation of special syllabus for the age group of four to eight years. But the government authorities will have not only to supervise preparation of the content but also to keep a check on what is being taught to the future of the nation in private schools and how it is being selected by the school owners.