By Dr Ireen Mahamba

‘Mwana wenyu warira vakoma’
WE are very much concerned about early childhood development because children are the foundation of society, and therefore a critical ingredient in founding a new society.
Early childhood development is a process that begins while the child is still in the mother’s womb.
Studies have revealed that parents can communicate with the child while it is in the mother’s womb and therefore can influence the course of its development.
It is also known that what the mother experiences while she is carrying the baby also affects the child’s development.
Thus early childhood development continues from the womb through the early years until the child turns five by which time its character is formed.
So, who comes in at what stage in early childhood development.
Parents and families are involved in this process from even before birth as mentioned above.
They name it, they educate it about itself, they orient it to the family, the community and the nation.
They initiate it into the family culture, that of the community and the cultures of the nation.
This education from the family has the greatest effect on the child because it comes from those closest to it, those who love it best.
The mother and father are the child’s heroine and hero, and the brothers and sisters are its role models still.
Its immediate environment, the home, the community make the deepest impression on it, and when it turns five, it is from this context that it would have derived the ingredients that make up its character.
If we are talking about early childhood education other than that undertaken by the family, what is the purpose and when is the correct entry point?
If we are referring to the plethora of crèches, kindergartens, pre-schools, early learning centres or whatever name they go by, they mostly are so Eurocentric they do not help us to raise heirs for Zimbabwe.
In the care of families and communities, our children have better chances of turning out Zimbabwean than in these institutions.
For, how many of these early childhood education institutions use the mother languages of the children?
How many of them have departed from ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘Ba Ba Black Sheep’?
We all know the answer.
How many of them ever use traditional nursery rhymes such as “Mwana wenyu warira vakoma?”
How many of them tell the children ‘ngano dzaana tsuro nagudo’?
Do they talk about the liberation struggle, in their songs, rhymes, stories, poetry? Is it not taboo?
So, whither the children of Zimbabwe.
This is why the children are best left in the care of their families, because this way they have better chances of turning out to be Zimbabweans.
I underline heirdom because this is the most fundamental education the children need in their early years.
Once this is in place, our nation can achieve anything, can achieve all its dreams. Ndicho Chindunduma chacho ichochi, if we get it right at this early stage, we are home and dry, but if we miss the boat, it will be much harder for us to fashion our youngsters into heirs.
Literacy and numeracy are not an issue in these early years, the child will most certainly master these, what matters is the context.
Once people know who they are, they can achieve anything, they can learn anything.
Paulo Freire taught that being in control of one’s destiny is an important pre-requisite to learning.
Thus knowing who one is is essential because it is the starting point for controlling one’s destiny.
Researchers have unearthed what many parents and educators would not want to hear, that for all the fuss about pre-schools, kindergartens, crèches, early learning centres and the rest in this category, they have no significant effect on later schooling.
So why the fuss?
Why the investment of so much money in these institutions?
So we could actually do without these institutions and the sun would still rise in the East and set in West as far as the performance of our children in school goes.
Clearly therefore, we cannot justify these ‘early learning institutions’ on the grounds that tomorrow the children would do ‘better’ in schools.
In fact, these institutions apart from undermining heirdom, are detrimental to the linguistic development of children, because they cost the children to master literacy in the second language before that of the mother language despite that the development of the second language depends on that of the first language. This approach compromises the development of both languages, accounting for the phenomenon of the ‘NOSE BRIGADE’, which is generally characterised by poor mastery of both the mother language and the second language never mind, ‘kunoza’.
These institutions, if they are to be of value to Zimbabwe, then something fundamental must change.
They have to stop being so Eurocentric, this is not Europe.
They should be truly Zimbabwean, operated in a Zimbabwean context, and serving the ethos of Zimbabwe.
The majority of Zimbabwe’s families are still quite Zimbabwean, when the child goes to an early childhood education and care centre, their identity should be affirmed not undermined by reciting Humpty Dumpty and such like.
This affirmation is necessary for the sake of the child and our nation Zimbabwe.
No-one can give their best if they are not confident in themselves.
Children are not blind, they are sensitive, they silently wonder why the life they lead at home, in their communities, is not a subject for discussion in class, and they get hurt.
The best foundation for the children, most importantly for the founding years, is for them to know who they are and to accept themselves, once they are at peace with themselves, the rest follows.
At any rate, can anyone be a true heir of what they despise?
Can anyone be a custodian of what they do not cherish as precious.
How does a child who has always said ‘mhai’ to his mother feel when he is suddenly told that the correct word is ‘mama’.
A certain father had always taught his daughter to call him ‘baba’ and she was comfortable addressing him so.
When she enrolled at a crèche, she ‘learned’ that it was not correct to call him ‘baba’ but ‘daddy’.
When she insisted on calling her father ‘daddy’, his response was: “Varungu vakatinzwa tichiti ‘daddy’, vachatibvunza kuti saka ivo voti kudini kana isuvo tava kuti ‘daddy’?”
It is still possible to have early childhood education that promotes the child’s emotional, psychological, cultural and academic development and still makes them the best heirs for Zimbabwe; that is the subject of our discussion next week.
“Mwana wenyu warira vakoma
Unorira mai vakainda
Vakainda mhiri kwaMungezi
KwaMungezi kune banga jena
Banga jena rokucheka nyama”

Dr Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University. She is currently doing consultancy work.