Early childhood focus of Jamia Milia’s new centre

Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) in partnership with non-profit Save the Children, will house the first-of-its kind Centre for early childhood development and research from the academic year 2011.

Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) in partnership with non-profit Save the Children, will house the first-of-its kind Centre for early childhood development and research from the academic year 2011.

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The centre aims to address the absence of early childhood development (ECD) professionals in the country through Diploma, Master, Mphil and PhD programmes.

While the diploma courses will be of one year duration the masters programme will be of two years.

The course structure — still being formulated — will have subjects related to clinical psychology, nutrition, childhood education, pre-and post-natal care, counseling for expecting mothers. A working child-care centre will help students to gain practical experience.

“We want to turn the students into expert child-care professionals, who will be accepted in organizations like Unicef, hospitals or can even run their own clinic,” said Professor Ejaz Hussain, co-ordinator of the centre and director of centre for physiotherapy and rehabilatation sciences, JMI.

“The most crucial years for a child is 0-6 years. This kind of a centre will ensure that the our demographic dividend do not turn into demographic liability,” said Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children.

Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource Development, who inaugurated the centre congratulated JMI and Save the Children for their initiative. “While the Right to Education Bill covers children from age of 6-14 years, the early childhood education and care which is crucial to a child’s development remains ignored. The ministry will extend help to this project.”