Parents of Mertsham Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD) center, under Kanglung Gewog in Trashigang, are worried about the safety of their children with just a lone facilitator monitoring 30 children on an average daily. The Center has enrolled 36 children.
The center used to have 2 facilitators in the past, one of them resigned last year.
“She is facing problem in managing the children; with more number of children in the center, a lone facilitator cannot look after everyone. She can’t be everywhere every time monitoring the children. We are worried about our children and we stay here to look after them. I think the center needs another facilitator to assist her,” said Karma Yangzom, a parent from Mertsham, Kanglung.
The parents also assist the facilitator in taking care of children sometimes but most of the time it falls on the facilitator alone.
“I can see she is facing a lot of problems, as she has to monitor a big group of children, engaged with the indoor and outdoor games. Anything can happen when the caretaker is just one and children are many,” added Singay Dorji, also a parent from the same village.
However, the Dzongkhag Chief Education Officer said they have already announced a vacancy post for ECCD facilitator and it will be recruited by the 1st week of September this year.
Meanwhile, the recently started Yonphula ECCD center is also closed for a week as the facilitator left for maternity leave, and as a temporary measure, the Non- Formal Education (NFE) instructor is running the center. The Dzongkhag Chief Education officer said that the NFE instructor will look after the center for now till a new facilitator is recruited.
