Last year, COPID-19 had a negative impact on education systems around the world and created a difficult reality for all stakeholders. The implications are no less important for kindergarten.
An important stage in a toddler’s life means that any disruption to their normal lifestyle is important to their development. For this reason, TeachKloud and other early childhood service providers are receiving an increasing number of users and requests as educators connect and support families with preschoolers.
The difficulty is that even with systems designed to prevent maximum exposure, the impact of COVID-19 on kindergartens is enormous. What exactly do we mean by that?
Read on to understand how the COVID-19 crisis has affected preschool and the efforts being made to reverse it.
Exhibition in a previously safe place
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Kindergarten is generally considered a relatively safe haven for most young children. However, as kindergartens continue to close and reopen in accordance with government regulations, many have unfortunately already been negatively affected by COWID-19.
Therefore, strict cleaning practices and sanitation had to become the norm to ensure the safe daily operation of the kindergartens. While hygiene and cleanliness would have been equally important in the past, current conditions require a greater commitment to this task.
For young children, the current alien reality must be difficult, especially since their once safe place to live is now subject to even stricter rules and social distancing.
Supporting child development
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Another difficult consequence of the pandemic is the disruption of child development. While it is impossible to suspend a child’s development, the many roadblocks that have led to the closure of kindergartens have hindered children’s development, as is usually the case.
The promotion of children through kindergartens and nurseries is extremely important. The learning and skills that take place in kindergarten are difficult for others to imitate, meaning their absence can be detrimental to these students.
Socially and emotionally, preschool education lays the foundation for the child’s character, which is difficult to acquire later in life.
Struggle for contact, safety, and peace of mind
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Personal contact is of course one of the most important pressures that COVID-19 exerts. Stress is felt even more acutely in early childhood when young children are trying to understand the concept of social exclusion. A big part of childhood development is physical contact with other people.
This certainly has a big impact on preschools around the world as they try to maintain a healthy space between children and educators. This is also one of the main reasons why management software is currently in high demand. More than ever, permanent contact between families and teachers is necessary to stay informed throughout the day.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is new to everyone and everyone is learning how to deal with it at the same time. This can cause great anxiety and tension in the environment where children are involved.
Endless tensions for teachers and parents
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There is no doubt that COVID-19 has created an atmosphere of stress in every way, for every individual. In doing so, you need to set up a rigorous system that keeps teachers and parents on track.
When COVID pressure is in full swing, it is extremely important to maintain communication with parents. Especially when it comes to informing families about possible symptoms in children, school closures, or other important information that may affect the functioning of the daily life of the preschool.
The need to maintain this contact and safety in all environments becomes a huge burden for teachers and parents, whatever the need.
Prior to the COPID 19 pandemic, unnecessarily expensive, poor quality, or inaccessible child and adolescent care led many caregivers to move young children from school into unsafe and uninspiring care, leaving more than 35 million children under the age of five worldwide, sometimes without adult supervision.
Of the 166 countries, half do not offer free one-year pre-school projects, and among low-income countries only 15% do.
Many young children who stay at home do not get the early play and education they need for strong development. In 54 low- and middle-income countries where information is consistent, about 40 percent of children ages 3 to 5 have not received compassionate or psychological care from an adult in their family unit.
The lack of alternatives in childcare and early education means that many caregivers, especially mothers working in informal settings, have no choice but to bring their babies to work. More than 9 out of 10 women in Africa and nearly 7 out of 10 in Asia and the Pacific work in temporary jobs and do not have access to any form of social security. Many caregivers get caught up in this problematic and poorly paid work, which the report says contributes to intergenerational patterns of indifference.
image source: answersafrica.com
Access to quality and moderate childcare and education for young people is the foundation for better families and a socially strong society. UNICEF advocates for affordable, moderate, and quality care for children from birth to first grade.
The review paper makes recommendations on how governments and leaders can improve their strategies for caring for children and youth, including providing all youth with access to high-quality, age-appropriate, moderate, and affordable child care spaces, regardless of their family circumstances.
This orientation also points to other approaches to family life, such as :
- Paid parental leave for all persons caring for children, so that there is no break between the end of parental leave and the beginning of reasonable care for a child;
- Flexible work schedules that take into account the needs of working family caregivers;
- Interested in staffing for child care outside the home, including training;
- Social security systems, including transfers to families working in informal enterprises.
The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating child care emergencies around the world, Fore said. Families need to support their administration and supervisors to meet these challenges and keep their young people from learning and improving.
COVID-19 has the same impact on preschools as it does on other industries. As difficult as last year was, the best way to move forward is to use the resources we have.
