Early childhood development (ECD) is grappling with challenges including the small number of ECD home and centres that meet required standards, low child enrolment, inefficiencies in the provision of milk and Shisha Kibondo nutritious meals to children.

These challenges are highlighted in the first edition of the ECD scorecard that was announced by Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) on Wednesday, October 27.

Other challenges include the school feeding programme which has not yet been extended to all primary schools in the country, and poor diet for the women in reproductive years.

The survey, which RGB carried out in the 2020/20201 fiscal year in partnership with the National Child Development Agency (NCDA), considered six pillars including positive parenting, preparing a child for early education, sanitation, nutrition, health, and child protection.

While presenting RGB’s 2020/2021 activity report to both Chambers of Parliament, Usta Kaitesi, Chief Executive Officer of RGB said that the survey was conducted in 13 districts found to have higher malnutrition and stunting levels than others in the country.

The sampled districts are Bugesera, Gakenke, Huye, Karongi, Kayonza, Ngororero, Nyabihu, Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru, Rubavu, Ruhango, Rutsiro and Rusizi.

It indicated that, overall, ECD performance was at 77.4 percent. The health pillar performed better than others at 86.8 percent, while preparing a child for early education was the least performer with 66.1 percent.

Child protection got 83.6 percent, nutrition 79.7 percent, positive parenting 76.1 percent, sanitation 72.1 percent.

According to UNESCO, ECD refers to a comprehensive approach to policies and programmes for children from birth to eight years of age, their parents and caregivers, aimed at protecting the child's rights to develop his or her full cognitive, emotional, social and physical potential.

UNESCO says that this is a time of remarkable growth with brain development at its peak, adding that during this stage, children are highly influenced by the environment and the people that surround them.

MP Adrie Umuhire expressed worry over child nutrition that was still lacking, pointing to stunting rate that stood at 33 percent among Rwandan children as per the 2019/2020 Demographic and health Survey by the National Institute of Statics of Rwanda.

"Malnutrition has far-reaching impact on the child’s growth and future,” she said, wanting to know strategies to address the stunting problem with a view to improve the health of children.

In addition, Umuhire said that early learning is beneficial to a child’s development as indicated by research, but voiced concern that its performance was well below 70 percent, calling for measures to improve on this factor.

Kaitesi said that they recommended that such issues be addressed to foster early child development.

"These ECD centres are still few, and their capacity is still limited,” she said, pointing out that early childhood development initiatives are still nascent in Rwanda, but that improvement is needed in this regard as it is important.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), every child deserves the best start in life and the opportunity to thrive, and a child’s brain develops rapidly during the early years, and lost opportunities might never be redeemed.

In the first 1,000 days of life – from pregnancy through to the first two years –, UNICEF says, babies’ brains form new connections at a pace never repeated again. Over 80 per cent of a child’s brain is formed by the age of 3, and up to 75 per cent of each meal goes directly to building a baby’s brain. These first 1,000 days have a lasting effect on a child’s future, and there is only one chance to get it right.

ECD is about supporting a child in these critical early years, providing holistic access to early learning, good nutrition, hygiene and protection.

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), key academic priorities in the current fiscal year and the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) include ensuring higher access to pre-primary education so as to increase net enrollment rate in this education level from 24.6 percent in 2019 to 45 percent by 2024.

There were over 282,400 pupils in nursery schools in 2019, including over 41,600 in public, 125,600 in Government-aided, and 115,120 in private schools, shows data from MINEDUC.