 Assalamu alaikum dear students. I am Dr. Afifa Khanam and I am your instructor for this course, Trends and Issues in Early Childhood Education. I welcome to you for this course and I hope that you will enjoy this course a lot because it is the need of the R to care for our children. So our first lecture is that emerging trends in ACE, the global child, changing issues, changing time. Now I will tell you the learning outcomes of this course because we are going to learn a lot of things within this course. For example, after completing this course, you will be able to conceptualize and explain current trends and issues in early childhood education. And likewise, you will identify curriculum changes for 21st century. So you will learn to develop innovative and engaging strategies for teaching at early grade children. You will learn to produce leadership qualities in early grade students. The learning outcome of this course is also to inculcate moral and ethical values in early grade children. To create awareness in early grade children for prevention of child abuse and to develop strategies to incorporate technology in teaching early grade students. And likewise, the next learning outcome will be practice multiple and appropriate ways of assessment for early grade children. We have some more learning outcomes because that's the vast and very, very essential course for you. You will learn to manage and develop gender identities in early year children. Manage diversity and individual differences to promote equity in early grade children. You will learn sense and monitor early year children's health and nutritional issues. So now we are coming to the changing issues, changing time for ECE. Dear students, we are now in the 21st century. And you know our future are the kids, the children. Early childhood children we define are from birth to eight years. So all of the world is emphasizing the education, nutrition, health and training of early childhood children. For all its diverse, invaded past, early childhood education has had a consistent commitment to four major themes. And these are the ethics of social reform. We have to do social reform for our children. So why don't we prepare ourselves for our children in Pakistan as well? And then is importance of childhood. Childhood is very important. We need to use all our resources for our children so that they become better adults or children. Then transmission of values. You know the biggest goal of education is to instill our tradition in our future generations. So this is a big goal. Any religion, any area, any place, why not? People want to inculcate their traditions, traditions, religion in their children, in their generations. So this will be our topic for today. And then professionalism. Professionalism for the teachers, for the early childhood educators. Meaning, if the teachers are educated, educated, then we can educate our children well. So all the standards of quality, we need to inculcate them in our first educator. And then we need to instill them in the students and in the new generation. So dear students, in the ethics of social reform, as you can see, as the 21st century came, there was a revolution all around the world. And the most important thing was that every nation was giving it to their children. Because this is their future. In the 1950s, there was a talk of early childhood. The early teaching of children, as we said, from birth to 8th year, the children learn faster. The environment, the environment, the education of their parents, the guidance given by their parents. And the experience of the day and night affects the most. Have you ever seen a child in your house? You repeat the same thing and repeat it like a copycat. And you are amazed. Do you repeat the same thing or after some time? And then what you do, you see the same thing. Have you ever seen these advice in your elders? It takes a lot of time to learn from them. They learn from a long time. If you are reading some books, you will be able to understand them after a long time. But Allah SWT has made the early childhood very important. So the whole world wants to pay more attention to the upbringing of innocent children. They have to move forward and give a better society. So all this is because our childhood is important. You must have an idea that the brain is fast in the childhood. Your body is also very fast in the childhood. The child comes here from here every year. He learns a lot. The language that we can't even learn at a young age. In the first year, the language he speaks with the child in the second year, all of it becomes mind-blowing. And it becomes a part of his life. So he says that the childhood is important. Not just that his learning skills are very sharp. In fact, it happens that the child is so vulnerable. He also suffers a lot in this age. He is delicate. He doesn't get suitable food, suitable food, suitable education. So he becomes a person who can never benefit the society. So dear children, students, my dear students, in fact, it is very important for us to understand what is the importance of childhood. So we will tell you in detail about our future information and modules. The next thing that we said, transmission of values, i.e. to move ahead with the future. So what do you think? Is the future only this? How will your celebrations be? Or will you accept any religion? In every stage of life, from morning till evening, to wake up, to sit, to talk to people, to deal with people, to organize your own events, to organize your own rituals, all of this is a part of our transmission of values. We have to teach all of this. You know that when a person sees you, talks to you, or there is a link with you, then he realizes that this person is well trained. He is certainly raised in a good house, or his parents or relatives have worked hard on him. So this means that your life is made in these days. From here, you get education. How do you want to talk? How do you want to be a grown-up? How do you want to take care of yourself? How do you want to learn the knowledge of ordinary people's lives? What is important? What is not important? So you know that what is value is the importance of your life. On which your beliefs and attitudes become, which are your thoughts, then the thoughts of children become in your childhood. And this is the part of their life when they grow up, and their behaviors become a part of them. Now, when we talk about professionalism, then dear students, if this professionalism is not in practice, then your proper hiring will not be of practice. There will be no standard for their qualification. Their education will not be good. They will not have the knowledge of the care of their children. Or their attitude, or their behaviors. They will not be able to train their children. Then all this is a dream. For the children's education, as I said, in the 21st century, the ECE was early childhood. It had no concept before. People thought that children would grow up and learn from their experiences. So, the 19th century, which came in the 20th century, then you first saw that the Russians said that they wanted to train their children in the jungle. They learned from nature. And what will happen in nature, they will experience everything. So, since they learn from their experiences, do you, do you experience the same experiences that you get in schools where they touch things of nature or in such situations, or in such circumstances, that they become a part of their life, become a memory of their life, and develop their attitude or belief. So, it is not that the world is happening and the way it is happening, it is enough for the children. For that, they will have to make special arrangements and train their children as I said, in education, first of all, when you do hiring for the ECE, then they should have relevant qualifications. Okay? That is, they should not only have the knowledge of education but also the knowledge of pedagogy. Pedagogy is especially the knowledge of teaching children. Now, pedagogy is also important that they have qualifications. Now, when they know the knowledge of children, their care, which we call ECC, that is, early childhood, care, childhood care for education, then there is not only education in this. Next word, care is also added. Now, care means that we do not only have to teach the children, we also have to take care of them. Okay? So, our education system should be like this, that they should not only teach the children, but also take care of them. So, in this way, we have to make the standard of qualification or the standard of qualification. And nowadays, there are many standards. There is also teacher licensing. And our teachers, especially those who have done the courses of ECE, who have done the honors of ECE, they are hired. Secondly, as I said, that this is not only education, that some math questions come to them, or science things come, or arts things come. In fact, because of the holistic development, which is the emphasis of the whole world, we have to do the holistic development of some child. So, in that, along with education, we have to train him. And training means the personality of the whole person. He is a small person, a small package. We have to see what kind of needs he needs. For example, first of all, his physical health. That is, he is getting nutrition. Is he getting positive energy? Is he getting positive energy? Is he getting emotional health? Is he emotionally strong? Is he able to control his emotions? Is he able to wash and wash his face? All these things are necessary to bring him to the right place. Then, we will see how the child is performing socially, whether he goes near others. He accepts others. The diversity of opinion. means you must have seen that children do not get any respect from strangers. They are ashamed, they hide behind their parents, they hide behind their parents. Making them social is also the biggest goal of the school. If we go there, there will be peers, there will be friends who will study and play with them. But how are they behaving there? That is important. So what do we do? We teach the children that they should develop socially, emotionally develop, physically develop, mentally develop. Now in this way, we will try our best to select our children in a suitable way so that they can be suitable for the children. And in the future, they will be able to provide a good society for us, and create a good society.