Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA) dispatched a delegation of Egyptian senior officials in the early childhood development field to Japan in order to benefit from the Japanese experience in this field.
The visit comes in view of the Project for Quality Improvement of Early Childhood Development, with the aim to support increasing the understanding and application of the Japanese system in nurseries in Egypt, JICA said on Sunday.
The Egyptian delegation included Sahar Mashhour, advisor for social care to the minister of social solidarity, Atef Adly, dean of the Faculty of Early Childhood Education at Cairo University, as well as Tetsuo Kamitani, senior advisor for the Early Childhood Development Project.
The visit highlighted early childhood development in Egypt and the delegation discussed the challenges of applying the Japanese system in Egypt; integrating theory and application; besides the Japanese experience in applying the ‘Learning through Playing’ theory; supporting children’s independence; creating a suitable environment for the children, and enhancing the performance of facilitators in nurseries.
During the visit, the delegation held a number of meetings with the President of Tsurumi University, the Vice-President of Tokyo University of Arts and Sciences, as well as a number of Japanese senior officials from the ministry of health, Labour and Welfare to outline the different opinions on the child care policy.
JICA and the ministry of social solidarity have jointly inaugurated the technical cooperation project entitled ‘Project for Quality Improvement of Early Childhood Development,’ to support the ministry’s efforts to improve the quality of services in the Egyptian nurseries.
This project is considered to be one of the major components of the Egypt-Japan Education Partnership (EJEP) that was launched in 2016 by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Japan with the aim to build the capacity of Egyptian youth and promote prosperity and development in the country.
