The impact of Early Childhood Care and Development services on Women’s empowerment in Albania Table of Contents
VI. Early Childhood and Development services in Albania
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- VII. Results
VI. Early Childhood and Development services in AlbaniaThere is enough evidence to assure that the GoA has done significant efforts to include childhood and in particular younger children into its national political project, which has endured throughout different governments. Despite these important achievements, services directed to children under 6 years old and their families continue to be fragmented and the responsible sectors do not work in a coordinated way. The services this study focuses on are those that provide care services for children less than 6 years old. These are: nurseries and public kindergartens or pre-preparatory classes. Nurseries are public institutions that provide care services for children from 6 months to 3 years old. Children receive food and general care services like rest and changing of diapers, but there is not any pedagogic process being implemented. Nurses and teachers compose the staff working at these institutions, excluding other key professionals such as social workers and psychologists. Parents can leave their children for an eight-hour period or half a day48. All of these families have to pay a fee for this service that ranges from 2,500 – 3,500 ALL (approximately 18- 25 euros). The Local Government Units (LGU) that include municipalities and communes, administer these nurseries. There are no further responsibilities of any governmental agency, only the Ministry of Health who provides the nutritional guidelines implemented by the nurseries. According to UNICEF’s report on Nurseries (2011), LGU’s do not have the sufficient budget, technical or administrative capacity to manage these, and have poorly trained staff49. Nurseries only exist in the main cities and towns, leaving the rural population with no access to this service. There are no nurseries with special services for children with disabilities or for Roma children. There is no official information on the number of children that attend nurseries in Albania. Save the Children has stated that there are 29 nurseries (including public and private) in Tirana with services for 2,000 children. In smaller cities such as Durres there are no more than 2 or 4 nurseries that provide services for approximately 100 children50. Regarding public kindergartens or the preparatory classes, the GoA affirms that there has been an increase in coverage to the point that today 68% of Albanian children are attending these preparatory classes51. This coincides with the goal of the Government of reaching a universal coverage of preschool for all 5 year-old children in Albania by 2015. However, other sources of information state that the national coverage of preschool is 59% (urban areas 68% and rural areas 46%). There are different types of kindergartens. Most function within schools (400 schools have them currently52) but there are others that provide services, specifically in rural places with difficult access, in a more informal structure53. Quality of preschool is clearly a priority for the GoA and the Ministry of education has set in place different strategies to achieve this. Since 1994, it has been required that all preschool teachers are professional. The Ministry of Education has in its annual budget a line for local trainings that all preschool teachers have to do once a year. There are incentives set in place such as extra training credits that can lead to a salary increase. A standardized set of guidelines for curricula has been implemented and teachers may adapt it depending on their particular contextual needs. There are some teachers trained to work with children with disabilities, and in some parts of the country there are some culturally adjusted programmes for Roma children 54. VII. ResultsThis section presents the results obtained with the interviews, focus groups and surveys applied according to the sample designed for the study. This study intended to look into the relationship between the availability and quality of ECD services and women’s empowerment in Albania. Therefore the designed instruments were based on a set of indicators that determine this relationship and evidence the existence of additional variables that are affecting women’s empowerment in the country. The table below lays out the basic aspects of the study from which the analysis was built on in all three sections. In order to keep the same structure that was planned with the methodology designed to carry out this study, the results section is divided into the three components: ECD services, women’s empowerment, and institutions. To understand the links between ECD services and women’s empowerment it is fundamental to look into the specific characteristics of each of the components. Table No. 4 PICOT+R Question- Objective of the study
The table below presents the indicators that were analyzed utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data collected in Albania. These indicators are divided into the components described before, except for the Fixed Conditions that are described at the end of the section given their natural condition of being unable to change. Table No. 5 Primary and secondary indicators
Early Childhood Care and Development Services Table No. 6- Indicators to measure women’s empowerment in Albania –Physical Capital
Physical capital Services and infrastructure Consistent with the literature review, the data collected in the field shows that ECD services in Albania are insufficient and not of the highest quality. Despite efforts by the Albanian government, these services are still inexistent in some rural areas of the country and groups such as the Roma community are the most excluded. Services for children under the age of 3 years, crèches, are very limited. These can mainly be found in urban places and are not free of charge. Also, according to the data, most families prefer that their children stay at home with their mothers or closest family members until they are old enough to go to kindergarten. “When children are young, women should definitely stay home and care for them” (FGD with rural fathers in Kukes). This social tendency of leaving the younger children in their households for the first two years actually benefits the development process of the child. However, it is a fact that the Albanian context evidences the need for good quality ECD services for children younger than 3 years. This is consistent with the expressed desire of women to work, the need to increase the household income, and desire for more free time, even if they have young children. As mentioned before, the availability of services remains a challenge for Albania. Data collected shows that only the rural areas of Elbasan and Tirana report all their children attend a service, but the rest report that less than 10% of children under 6 years go to any ECD services. Additionally only two of the services visited are free of charge for parents. Coincidently these two places are not the same that report full coverage (rural services in Kukes and Fier), this is an indicator that parents pay for these services meaning they are important for them. According to the service providers, costs for ECD services range from 15 to 29 euros a month, depending on food provision and hours of time in the service. Services are almost three times more expensive in urban than in rural areas. All services in the study are open five days a week and their services are provided from 2 to 8 hours daily, most offer services from 4 to 6 hours daily. Services offered for a full day were only found in the urban areas. Graph No. 1 Working hours of ECD services in Albania Source: Survey with service providers Albania, February 2013 applied by ASSA 82.2% of mothers in the sample stated that the service is near their home, the closest in the urban areas, followed by suburban and rural. Qualitative data however does bring up the fact that families, in particular those who live in the more rural areas, do have important access problems to ECD services either because there aren’t any or because when weather conditions are harsh, roads collapse and they cannot travel the distance required to leave their children in the service55. This information collected is consistent with the regional distribution of population in the study units. When asked, families in the sample are in general satisfied with the quality of the services their children receive. Most of the mothers including Roma and mothers with CDW agreed that they have witnessed positive changes in their children since they began attending the service. However they are critical of the services and have suggestions on which aspects need to be addressed in order to improve their quality. Graph No. 2 Aspects parents would change from existing ECD services in Albania Source: Household survey Albania 2013- Albania Social Services Association In particular, crèches seem to be the services that parents trust the least because they do not believe that staff is knowledgeable enough to work with children under 3 years of age. Mothers of CDW and Roma mothers are in general not satisfied with the services provided by the public sector in Albania. Both affirm that services are discriminatory against them, and in the case of CDW, teachers and other staff members are not trained to work with these children. Graph No. 3 Aspects women like the most of ECD services Source: Household survey Albania 2013- Albania Social Services Association Although national legislation and the Ministry of Education have established quality standards for preschool education or preparatory classes, evidence shows that most of the time these do not reach the field level and if they do, they are not implemented. A clear example is the issue of teacher training. The Ministry of Education states that preschool teachers receive training once a year. However data collected in the field shows that training is very diverse. Partners such as UNICEF, Save the Children and other international organizations in the country in collaboration with the local Departments of Education, are usually the ones who provide training. According to service providers, the frequency of trainings range from a time frame of “very rarely” to “every month”. For specific needs such as children with disabilities and ethnic differences, teachers do not receive training in general. The only positive answers were obtained in rural Kukes, urban Elbasan and suburban Tirana. This also is inconsistent with the information provided by the Ministry of Education that states that there are specific trainings for teachers of CWD. Qualitative and quantitative data collected stress the fact that parents in general would be more inclined towards enrolling their children in these services if they would improve the following: provide warm meals, extend hours of attention and extend days of services over the weekends and summer time. Women seem to be better within their households when the kids are enrolled in a service. The graph below shows that the most frequent answer and change perceived from children attending ECD services is harmony in the family. Graph No. 4. Reported positive changes in the family Source: Household survey Albania 2013- Albania Social Services Association Quality and coverage are both critical aspects of ECD services in Albania as supported by evidence in the literature. Findings evidence that parents care the most about the conditions of the service in particular infrastructure, pedagogic methods and staff’s composition. Although mothers are mostly satisfied with the quality of the teachers and staff in the kindergartens, there is sufficient evidence that there are structural issues that determine the quality of the services for children under 6 years in Albania. Not only does the quantitative data show that aspects like care and safety are amongst the biggest concerns of Albanian mothers, but service providers and qualitative information collected from parents in general, show that teacher training, quality standards, and the number of children per teacher in the classroom, amongst others, are additional issues that need to be addressed in a timely and holistic manner by the competent institutions. The issue of concern for quality is even more critical for families with CWD, who tend to not send their children to the services because they do not trust staff to be knowledgeable enough to take care of their children. These results coincide with the international evidence available that stress out that bad quality services can do more harm to a child during this period than the fact that the child does not attend a service at all. The study also explored whether payment is an obstacle to access ECD services. About 19% of all interviewed mothers answered that they would not be able to pay for the services, if they were not free. Those parents who where not in the sample but did participate in the FDG’s, did complain more about the cost of these services, however there is a tendency for them to state that if services were of better quality, they would definitely try to get the money to pay for them. However, this does not imply that because of this, Albanian government should not consider reducing or eliminating the fee for these services. The lower the fees, the most probability of attending the services for children less than 6 years of age. Results evidence that fees are not the only condition for attendance, however it should always be considered when thinking about designing social policies and services. Women’s empowerment The general definition of women’s empowerment used by Albania’s UNICEF CO for this study implies employability as its primary and foremost indicator. Employability coming as a result of women having more time to work because they have the possibility to leave their children somewhere during working hours. Fieldwork results show that this is evidently true, but also that women not only consider they are empowered if they have a job, but that there are additional factors that impact their empowerment. The instruments designed for data collection included more indicators than employability and were divided into primary and secondary drivers as shown in the table below. Table No. 7- Indicators to measure women’s empowerment in Albania –Social and Human Capital
Social Capital Family network: Family networks are more frequently mentioned by women and men who have children under 6 years as the option to leave their children for some hours a day when services for ECD are non-existent or unaffordable. Therefore family networks constitute a very important factor for women’s independence as well as for childcare, in particular in the rural areas. Grandparents, who are the more traditional second primary care givers in Albania, and sisters in law, mainly constitute family networks for childcare of children less than 3 years old both in the rural and urban areas. Given Albanian patriarchal society, many couples live in extended family households owned by the parents of the husband. Therefore the family networks do not usually include the mother’s family. For families with CWD it is harder to “trust” other members of the family besides the mother to take care of these children. Mothers of CWD state that they understand what their child needs, have the patience and knowledge to take care of them. These women seem to be less interested in these types of networks. In the case of Roma women, the general tendency is that workingwomen take their children with them wherever they go. This seems to be a cultural aspect that is different for non-roma women. Therefore family networks for childcare don’t seem to be as important as for other Albanian women. Men’s role in childcare and household work Results obtained in the various FGD held with men who had children under 6 reinforce the fact that Albanian society is very patriarchal and traditional. Women are viewed mostly as the ones responsible for taking care of the household and the children and men are the breadwinners. This trend is more intense in the rural areas and by older men throughout the entire country. Urban younger men seem to be spending more time with their children, taking on responsibilities such as taking them to kindergarten, school and for play activities in the park. Rural men tend to be more resistant to children attending ECD services than those in the urban and sub-urban areas. This mainly was manifested due to economical reasons and the inability to afford these services but had a heavy load of the traditional idea that women need to stay home so this is a service that should not even exist: “Why should I spend my money? It is better to keep my wife at home and she can raise the kids” (FGD, rural area Elbasan). Community network Rural women are less inserted in community networks than urban women. However, there seems to be a low prevalence of these types of networks in the whole country. In rural areas, women are more secluded in their homes and are less keen to socially be engaged in activities. On one hand, because there are not many services or programmes that motivate this and on the other, because of the patriarchal customs that prevail in Albania that see these networks as socially unaccepted: “They say they would like to go out, even take a short walk around, so that they can walk away from the stress and the everyday routine. But this is quite difficult for the rural areas. A mother from Elbasan stated, “Women do not attend even the activities of the catholic church. When they can come to the church, they hang around in the courtyard, meet other women and socialize, but this happens very rarely”. Despite the desire that the women have “to go out” with a friend, or a peer, they self restrain to avoid any problems in the family. One mother from a village in Fier says;“the women are so discriminated, if a woman is seen to be drinking coffee with a friend, she would be damned forever” (FGD – Fier and Elbasan). This lack of strong community networks also implies that women do not rely on others outside their family to leave their children at their care when needed. Although some women did mention that when they had to, they talked to neighbors about looking after their children for a couple of hours, this was not common and not very accepted by society in general. Levels of participation Another natural consequence of the behavior towards women in Albania is the fact that because they do not bring income to the household, they don’t have an education and they are responsible for the children’s upbringing, they do not have any saying on any decision made. This came up in the results, both of men and women, and it is a clear sign of lack of empowerment. The FDGs done with teenagers clearly show that women are perceived as very submissive with complete lack of power and legitimacy in the household. “Women do not feel free to express their opinion and execute those decisions made by their husbands. Women are subject to patriarchal mentality, following their traditional upbringing. Most decisions are taken by the man whom is not taking to consideration the women” (FGD with teenagers in Elbasan). “Women have started to become a participant in various activities but still women’s initiatives are not welcomed. Even if a woman takes part in an outdoor activity mentality won’t let that go on further. The mentality does not approve these kinds of initiatives they just go out from the common frame of thinking” (FDG with teenagers in Kukes). When asked the question of how they envisioned empowered women, women replied that they could make decisions on their lives, their children’s lives and the family in general. Teenagers also brought up the issue of decision-making in relation to empowerment, which implies that the following generation already strongly perceives this trend. Human capital Education level Women’s education levels in Albania are not very high. In particular in the rural areas, education is a scarce good, which primarily is taken by men. Even young girls after they finish high school are not allowed to study because they need to be married at age 20, in the rural areas some even at 14-15, as the custom dictates. Therefore there is no continuity towards professionalization in particular of girls. Women in general tend to reply that they would indeed like to have more years of education and or complete their high school. Particularly in urban areas education is perceived as “something that can change their lives” by giving them a different perspective on their life, amongst all other advantages. “It a woman that stays home has completed some education, at one time she would say to her self: why am I staying home? I spent all those years studying, I should use them and get a job.” (FDG with mothers- Fier, February 2013) The conversations held with teenagers also brought up the importance of women’s education levels in their children’s development process. Mothers with low levels of education are perceived as incapable of taking appropriate care of their children due to the fact that they are not able to help the children with their school tasks. This relationship between mothers and children founded on this reality will also alter women’s empowerment and self-esteem. Employment Results show that 60.7% of the women in the sample who take their children to an ECD service are unemployed. Of the 39.3% remaining, the majority of women have jobs in family businesses that in most cases imply informal jobs. Respectively, numbers for women who attend other services (community centers etc.) are 72% and 28%. Of the total unemployed women of the sample, 40.1% are urban, 69.9% are rural and 86% are suburban56. Results from the FGDs show that most of the women who have one CWD are unemployed and state that they prefer to stay at home taking care of their child. According to these results Roma women also in general are unemployed. Graph No.5. Women’s unemployment: urban vs. rural distribution Source: Household survey Albania 2013- Albania Social Services Association Below is a graph that shows what the most common jobs of Albanian women are according to the employed women in the sample. Jobs in the informal market are the most common for vulnerable women in the sample. These results are consistent with the data from the official sources. This graph is the result of a qualitative analysis of an open question in the household survey applied for the study. Graph No. 6. Most common jobs of employed women Source: Household survey Albania 2013- Albania Social Services Association Of the women who take their child to an ECD service, 87.8% agree that this makes it easier for them to work mainly because of the free time they have given the hours they leave their children in these institutions. Some women in fact do affirm that because of this additional free time, they have been able to get a job. Employment however is also strongly related to availability of jobs, education level of candidates and in particular, all groups involved in this study reported the high weight “mentality” and culture of Albanian society represents regarding social division between women and men in their traditionally accepted roles. Income 26% of women in the sample stated that since they started to take their children to an ECD service, their income increased. These women are mainly the ones who started working as a result of the free time they gained by leaving their children for a couple of hours a week in an ECD service. This increase is used by 50.4% of the women in household expenses, which represents an increase in the household’s income meaning increasing quality of life of these families. The rest is distributed into education expenses, 18.7% (of the children) and in leisure activities, 19.6%. Qualitative data indicates that income is perceived as the key for women to become more independent from their husbands and socialize more, have an opinion on family issues and have more decision making power within the household. “When you bring money home, you keep your head high” (FGD with mothers in Kukës town). Leisure Leisure is an indicator that is usually associated with quality of life. Vulnerable women in Albania in general have very little leisure time because of the workload of household duties and children upbringing takes up, but also because of the social norms that do not accept women’s socialization and other activities related with leisure. Women in all of the study units and FDGs brought up that they would like more free time and would use it for leisure activities such as gardening and going for coffee with friends. Quantitative results show that women that have recently gained an increase in their income use a significant amount of it in leisure activities (19.6%), which exceeds the amount they actually spend in children’s education (18.7%). Both qualitative and quantitative data are consistent in the level of importance leisure has in making women feel empowered. It is interesting however, that mothers of those children with disabilities seem to be the least interested in leisure activities and this could be related to the fact that because of the lack of appropriate services for these children and lack of knowledge of the parents, they are overwhelmed with the day to day activities and have little or no time to think about leisure. In general 77% of women in the sample affirm that their life experienced positive changes since they enrolled their children in any ECD service. The following graph shows what the most frequent answers were, divided into urban, rural and suburban areas. Free time is without question the most valued output followed by emotional changes, both of which impact significantly women’s empowerment, independence and self-esteem. Graph No. 7. Specifications of Mother’s personal changes Source: Household survey Albania 2013- Albania Social Services Association Fixed conditions Gender, ethnicity, region of inhabitance, rural/urban context are conditions that are mostly unchangeable. Factors such as migration or social mobility can affect the last two conditions in time and through generations, however at the time of the study they are considered fixed. Results show that there is a consistency between the country’s demographic and situation analysis as well as with the hypothesis that Roma women, and in particularly those who live in rural and disperse areas of Albania are the less empowered, the poorer, and the ones who have less access to social services provided by the State. This corroborates the fact that the Albanian Government should focus their efforts prioritizing these population groups in order to reduce inequality and change quality of life of its more vulnerable families. Institutions Albania’s institutional framework is vast and complete. As evidenced and corroborated in the field, there are laws and guidelines for ECD services and for every governmental level. Despite this, the general complaint of the various actors (public, private and international) interviewed for this study in Albania is that these laws and guidelines are not implemented to their full capacity. Institutions at the national level, who are in charge of drafting policies and laws, do not seem to see these voids in their implementation at the field level. There are important efforts being made at this level to work in a coordinated and intersectoral way in order to respond to the social issues affecting Albanian women and children. However, they have still a long way to go in order to successfully integrate all the responsible agencies in the implementation of these policies and programmes. Having an intersectoral committee it’s a good first step towards intersectoral work but not enough. Communication between the local, regional and national level is key in order to achieve good implementation. Results evidence that local public officers do not feel they get enough training and technical assistance from the national level. This suggests that Albanian local institutional capacity is very low in the matter of ECD services and protecting the rights of children and women. Given that programmes and policies happen at the local level, the Government of Albania needs to increase efforts in strengthening their local level institutions and staff in order to fully implement guidelines, legislation and programming. Directory: albania albania -> Communications strategy albania -> Various structural reforms in albania Download 247.72 Kb. Share with your friends:
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