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Early on Awareness Raising in Media of Role The

Partnerships Sustainable Establishing and Childhood

Society with

Report Workshop

2015 July

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of July 2015, the UNESCO Cairo office thOn the 30

organized a joint workshop with the Ministry of Education

on the role of media in raising awareness on early childhood

and establishing sustainable partnerships with Society.

The workshop was organized in the framework of the Early

Childhood Development Project in Egypt (522EGY1001)

funded by the Arab Gulf Program for Development

(AGFUND)

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Table of Contents

Workshop Agenda

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Session One: Opening and Welcome Speeches

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UNESCO Representative – Dr. Ghaith Fariz 6

Minister of Education – Prof. Moheb El Rafei 7

Session Two: The role of media and civil society in raising the awareness on the

importance of early childhood and how to motivate it to give concern to this stage

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Dr. Magued Othman – The role of civil society in raising the awareness on the

importance of early childhood 8

Ms. Doaa’ Gad El-Haq – The role of media in raising the awareness on the

importance of early childhood

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Session Three: Analytical discussion on the importance of early childhood. 10

Analytical review on the role of media in raising awareness and the way it handles

topics related to early childhood – Dr. Hanan Kamal

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Analytical review around the challenges facing early childhood in Egypt – Dr.

Randa Shahin

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Session Four: Work groups 14

Session Five: Work groups presentations 15

Group One: The aspects of community outreach through media 15

Group two: Media outreach tools 16

Group three: How to motivate media institutions to increase their interest in early

childhood 18

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Photos 20

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Early on Awareness Raising in aMedi of Role the on Workshop

etySoci with Partnerships Sustainable Establishing and Childhood

2015 July 30

Cairo - Hotel Conrad

Agenda

Session One: Opening and Welcome Speeches

9:00 – 9:30 Registration

9:00 – 9:45 UNESCO Representative – Dr. Ghaith Fariz

9:45 – 10:00 Minister of Education – Prof. Moheb El-Rafei

Session Two: The role of media and civil Society in raising the awareness to the importance

of early childhood and how to motivate it to give concern to this stage

10:00 – 10:20 Dr. Magued Othman – The role of civil society in raising the awareness

to the importance of early childhood

10:20 – 10:40 Ms. Doaa’Gad El-Haq – The role of media in raising the awareness to

the importance of early childhood

10:40 – 11:00 Open Discussion and Questions

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

Session Three: Analytical Discussion on the importance of early childhood

11:30 – 12:00 Analytical review on the challenges facing early childhood in Egypt –

Dr. Randa Shahin

12:00 – 12:30 Analytical review on the role of media in raising awareness and the way

it handles topics related to early childhood – Dr. Hanan Kamal

12:00 – 1:00 Open Discussion

1:00 – 2:00 Lunch

Session Four: Work Groups

2:00 – 3:00 Group One:

The aspects of

Group Two:

Media outreach

Group Three:

How to motivate media

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community outreach

through media

tools institutions to increase

their interest in early

childhood

3:00 – 3:30 Coffee Break

Session Five: Work Groups Presentations

3:30 – 3:40 Group One Presentation

3:40 – 3:50 Group Two Presentation

3:50 – 4:00 Group Three Presentation

Session Six: Closing Notes

4:00 – 4:10 UNESCO Closing Speech

4:10 – 4:20 Ministry of Education Closing Speech

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Session One

Opening and Welcome Speech

UNESCO Representative – Dr. Ghaith Fariz

The workshop commenced with the UNESCO welcoming speech delivered by Dr. Ghaith Fariz

– Director of UNESCO office in Cairo, that stressed the goal of this workshop which is

examining the role of media in raising the level of awareness on the importance of early

childhood in our children’s lives.

Dr. Fariz indicated the importance of early childhood, a stage the extends from zero to 8 years, in

shaping the mind and sentiments of the child. This is because early childhood is a period of

growth and development of the child’s mental, emotional and psychological abilities that helps

him/her gain basic life skills that would allow him/her to pursue education later on in subsequent

years, since it involves the early stages of cognition and learning. It also includes the child’s

transition from parental care to the interaction with institutions and the surrounding environment

which affect the child’s ability to adapt, communicate and affects his/her mental, psychological

and social performance in subsequent educational stages.

At the end of his speech, Dr. Fariz emphasized the pivotal role media should play in raising

parental and social awareness on the need to improve access to early childhood education,

develop modern ECCE curriculums that meet international standards, along with the training and

employment of qualified teachers to overcome the shortage in some underserved regions.

Minister of Education – Prof. Moheb Refaei - Presented by Dr. Randa Shahin,

Chairman of Central Administration of Kindergarten and Primary Education, on behalf of H.E.

the Minister.

Dr. Randa started her speech by thanking UNESCO Cairo office for organizing this expert

workshop that seeks to reach practical solutions to support ECCE in Egypt, in light of the low

level of awareness of the value of education in kindergartens that results in a reduced

contribution and involvement from the private sector, civil society and local communities in this

area, particularly that it is not an official part of the national educational system.

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Dr. Ghaith Fariz , Director of the UNESCO Cairo office and Dr. Randa Shahin, Chairman of Central Administration of

Kindergarten and Primary Education during their opening speeches.

Session Two

The role of media and civil society in raising awareness on ECCE

and how to motivate them to take an active role

Dr. Magued Othman – CEO of the Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion

Research (Baseera)

Dr Magued addressed the issue of education, and how to this day, it falls short from receiving the

appropriate attention it deserves from officials as well as the civil society. He highlighted that

poverty and hunger are given priority, explaining that, though important, education should

receive its proper share of attention and resources allocation and that education needs to be

looked at differently because if the present situation persists, Egypt risks to be excluded from the

global context in the coming years.

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Ms. Doaa’Gad El-Haq – Anchor

Ms. Gad El Haq pointed out that the education content in media, especially early childhood

education, has undergone many changes. She explained how the media is now more focused on

political issues in the light of the recent events Egypt has witnessed. Moreover, Ms. Gad El Haq

shed the light on how some media figures are negatively affecting the child’s perception and

awareness by means of language and choice of topics.

Doaa’ Gad El Haq and Dr. Othamn during their speech in the session on media and civil

soceity

Session Three

Analytical discussion on the ECCE in Egypt

Analytical review of ECCE in the Egyptian media – Dr. Hanan Kamal, Expert

on Education and Media, Faculty of Education, Helwan University.

In an interesting analytical presentation, Dr. Hanan Kamal exposed how the Egyptian media

addressed the issue of ECCE in its programmes, showing clips from famous children’s

shows/programs over the past three decades in TV and radio. Dr. Kamal played clips from these

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famous programs and analyzed the content of their messages and air time, showing their impact

on that generation.

Children’s Cinema Show

Birds of Heaven Show

Dr. Kamal stressed that such programs were not thought of for entertainment and filling a child’s

time only, but they were formulated to help in:

• Attaining the comprehensive and integrated development to the child's mental,

physical, emotional, social and moral skills.

• Developing the child’s linguistic, numerical and artistic skills through individual and

group activities and developing analytical thinking.

• The proper social and healthy upbringing of the child to help him/her build a

personality and develop his/her ability to deal with the community.

• Prepare the child for school life, through the gradual transition from family care to

accustom him/her to dealing with institutions and surrounding environments.

• Strengthening the link between the child and family and society as a whole.

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• Identifying children with special needs to accelerate the development of their skills

and guide them as early as possible to paths that can provide them with special

services.

Challenges facing early childhood in Egypt – Dr. Randa Shahin

Dr. Shaheen devoted her speech to the challenges hindering the development of kindergartens in

Egypt and presented a number of proposed actions to remedy for the challenges such as:

1. The low access to kindergartens (30% ) which indicates that 70% of the children entitled

to attend kindergarten are left outside the system at this stage. This requires additional

funding for the maintenance work for classrooms, the efficient use of available spaces to

expand kindergartens and using the spaces adjunct to NGO for the same purpose.

2. The inadequate qualification of teachers, supervisors and other expertise needed in

kindergartens’ management that affects negatively affects the activities and meeting the

educational requirements of children at this stage. Dr. Shahin stressed that this requires

the appointment of new teachers and supervisors to match the number of kindergartens.

3. The lack of professional development for kindergartens employees that affects their

performance and prevents them from keeping pace with global standards. This needs

the set-up of a system for professional development to provide employees with accredited

training and proper preparation, the allocation of funds for such programs and the

inclusion of the outcomes of the professional development programs in the employees

promotion criteria.

4. The lack of public awareness of the importance of kindergartens and how it negatively

affects the contribution of the private sector, civil society and local community in this

area. This final point may require the development of a media strategy for

kindergartens, the coordinating with media institutions, and raising awareness among

families and society at large on the value of kindergartens. This will also require the

coordination of the efforts of civil society and the private sector to increase their

involvement in kindergarten activities.

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Dr. Hanan Kamal and Dr. Randa Shaheen listening to the questions of the participants

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Session Four

Work Groups

In this session, the participants of the workshop were divided into 3 working groups:

Group 3: How to motivate

media institutions

to increase their

interest in early

childhood

Group 2: Media outreach

tools

Group 1: The aspects of

community

outreach through

media

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Session Five:

Work Group Presentations

Group 1: The aspects of community outreach through media

First - Target Groups:

Teacher (Supervision) Parent Child

Faculties of Education

(Kindergarten)

Business Men Civil society

Decision Makers (Concerned

Ministries)

Second – Content (Programs):

For the child: educational programs and learning materials developed by specialists from the

Ministry of Education and Universities (printed, audible-visual and interactive material)

For the parents: awareness campaigns addressing various categories of society through

seminars, banners, advertisements, etc.

For the teachers: professional development and training, in addition to shedding light on the

role of kindergarten teachers in the media

For civil society and the business sector: increasing their awareness to the value of investment

in kindergartens and in a child’s education at this stage

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Group one during preparing their plan for social communication through media

Group 2: Media outreach tools

Media outreach tools proposed to raise awareness on the importance of early childhood through

the following tools:

Television Radio E-Books or printed books

Graphic Programs Radio programs for children

and adults

Programmed (and non-

programmed) books put by

professionals with certain

educational specifications

Songs Songs

TV series concerned with

children’s issues

TV Series

Programs:

- Educational

- Awareness

- Entertainment

- Technical

Educational Programs

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Dr. Hanan Kamal presenting the work of Group Two

Group 3: motivation of media institutions to increase their interest in early

childhood:

First, the group identified the following targeted media institutions:

- Printed media

- Radio

- Visual media

- Electronic media

Second, the group made the following recommendations:

1. The need to coordinate between the Ministry of Education and media institutions

through:

- Joint committees

- Training media workers, within their institutions, on ECCE

- Training teachers on educational media

- Development of content for TV channels to suit ECCE needs in the present time

under the supervision of the General Directorate for kindergartens

- Cooperation between the Ministry of Education and educational media in

universities to direct students’ graduation projects to the area of ECCE.

- Investing the media heritage in ECCE in modern forms that are attractive to

children.

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2. Cooperation between the ministry and media institutions to produce awareness

campaigns that address all ECCE stakeholders and illustrate its value.

3. The Ministry should invite media institutions to adopt parental education topics.

4. Conversion of curriculum and educational activities to media materials easy to produce to

facilitate their access to children deprived from education.

Group Three while making recommendations

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Photos

Before commencing the workshop

Opening session and speeches

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Part of the audience

Dr. Magued Osman during his speech in the second session

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Dr. Ghaith Fariz listening to the speeches

Audience participating in the discussion

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Dr. Cherine Khallaf making some remarks

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Work Groups