<\/p>\n
African cultural wisdom about child development and good parenting can and should contribute to building local relevance, trust and excellence in early childhood education and care (ECEC). But the current surge of ECEC programming on the continent pays little attention to that indigenous wisdom, preferring to \u201croll out\u201d a package of Western practices in a way that is reminiscent of the missionary and colonial past.<\/p>\n
Research in many African societies has found that indigenous child-rearing practices are rooted in the view that \u201cintelligence\u201d is broader than the Euro-American psychometric concept emphasised in many school curricula. Incorporating that perspective into ECEC programming would generate innovations that could also be relevant in the global north.<\/p>\n
However, failure to re-evaluate the current roll-out model in African countries risks turning ECEC into an expensive failure, with children missing out on learning and becoming immersed too soon in English or French medium teaching, thus hindering their long-term development.<\/p>\n