UNICEF runs a three day regional meeting on Early Child Developmental ReadinessAshgabat, Turkmenistan, 30 November, 2005 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), jointly with the Turkmenistan Ministry of Education, organized a three day technical consultation meeting to address children’s developmental readiness for school and early learning standards. The meeting was attended by about fifty participants from the countries in the Central Asian Region and Kazakhstan (CARK) as well as observers from The Consultation Meeting, which took place in Ashgabat for the first time, intends to advance participants’ knowledge of, and capacity to, enhance young children’s developmental readiness for school through the use of early learning standards. Another outcome of the Meeting is the establishment of a new Thematic Working Group on Developmental Readiness for School. The Thematic Working Group will expand early childhood care/education and advocate for the importance of overall developmental readiness for schooling as essential prerequisites of improved participation and performance in school. The Government of Turkmenistan agreed to lead the Thematic Working Group based on recommendations of the Fourth CARK Education Forum held in “The recommendations of the three day consultation meeting will be submitted to the next CARK Education Forum Executive Committee Meeting to be held in early 2006, and we hope it will be adopted in the next CARK Education Forum that will also take place in Ashgabat in summer 2006,” said Mahboob Shareef, UNICEF Representative in Participants of the event represented primarily the Ministries of Education of Turkmenistan and other CARK countries and “I’d like to express my gratitude to organizers of this consultation meeting and also to international experts who have shared their research expertise in the field of early childhood development. We had an opportunity to discuss the early learning standards of our countries and revise them to be compliant with international standards,” said Gulchahra Akubirova, a representative from The workshop took place with the full support and cooperation of both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education and proved to be another constructive outcome of the joint collaboration between the Government of Turkmenistan and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
For more information, please contact Ms. Gulyalek Soltanova, UNICEF Communication Officer, at: Phone: +99312 425681/82/86/86 Fax: +99312 420830 Email: gsoltanova@unicef.org
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