Providing quality preschool is an important factor in achieving SDG 4 – Ensuring quality education and life-long learning opportunity for all. Coalition for Educational Development conducted 2 days training program on ELDS (Early Learning Development Standards) for selected pre-School teachers. These teachers were nominated by CED member organization who involved in ECCD sector. Early childhood development which commences at conception and continues up to five years is the most crucial developmental phase of life. To develop a fully-fledged adult life, development in various domains needs to be stimulated during this period. Therefore it is important to develop and guide the child utilizing the precise methods and approaches.
In Sri Lanka, most of the preschools are operated by the private sector actors and some of them are operated by local governance authorities. Although children secretariat has introduced ELDS standards recently, It is observed that these standards are not adequately followed by the most of preschools. One of the main reasons for this situation is lack of training opportunities for the pre-school teachers especially in the remote areas. Objective of this awareness program is to improve the understanding of early learning development standers for pre-school teachers. This program was held on 07th and 8th of April in Colombo. Dr. Indrani Thalagala, former head of the ECCD, Department of Open University Sri Lanka and Asoka Pandithasekara Former primary education director- Ministry of Education facilitated the training program. This event provided a good opportunity to interact with senior academics and clarify their issues problems related to field. A total number of 30 pre-school teachers representing 20 districts participated to this event. CED expect that these trainees will be actively involved in sharing the knowledge with their colleagues.