From nurturing their physical and mental development to preparing them for schooling with the right attitudes, the Early Childhood Care and Development or ECCD centre is considered crucial for a child’s overall growth. However, with no facilitators, three ECCD centres under Tendruk Gewog in Samtse have remained closed serving no purpose.
Dzongsar ECCD Centre, one of the three closed centres in Tendruk Gewog has not served its purpose for the last three years.
Similarly, the ECCD centre at the Soeltapsa and Kachin chiwog have also remained closed for the same reason.
Currently, the centres are being used for NFE programs in the villages.
Given the need, the gewog administration converted the three Out Reach Clinics of Dzongsar, Soeltapsa and Kachin into ECCD centres by spending Nu 500,000 a few years ago.
Concerned parents claimed that their children are now getting older in the hope of getting enrolled in the centre.
“I think ECCD is significant in the overall development of a child. We have an ECCD centre here but it is not functional due to the lack of a facilitator. Not only me but most of the parents here have not been able to reap the benefits of the centre despite it being established a few years back. We are looking forward to receiving a facilitator soon,” said Deepa Rai, a parent residing in Dzongsar.
“With our ECCD centre closed without a facilitator, we are sending our children to an ECCD centre which is about two hours away from here. One of the parents will have to be with the children for the whole day. As such it would be very helpful if the concerned agency can send a facilitator here for our centre to be functional,” said Arun Kumar Rai, another parent from Dzongsar.
“Without an ECCD facilitator, we are having a tough time helping our children to learn. We have a lot of small children here. Even teachers are left with no other option than to bring their small children along with them to the school without an ECCD centre here,” said Jigme Choden, a parent.
Meanwhile, the Tendruk Gewog Administration said they wrote to the Dzongkhag and the RCSC. The gewog has been expressing the need for ECCD facilitators since 2019.
“We have written to the dzongkhag about the matter and the dzongkhag accordingly has written to the RCSC asking for ECCD facilitators in the gewog. But three years have passed on and we still haven’t received facilitators to look after the centre,” said Tendruk Gup, Nima Drukpa.
The Samtse Dzongkhag Administration had asked RCSC for 14 ECCD facilitators. However, they were told to wait as the RCSC and the education ministry currently are studying the need for ECCD and its facilitators in the country.
As per the gewog, the three chiwogs have about 50 children eligible for ECCD centre enrolment. Tendruk Gewog has five ECCD centres, of which only two centres in Tendruk Central School and Kuchhenthang are functional.
Passang Dorji, Samtse
Edited by Sonam Pem
