Council for Professional Recognition Offers First ECE Credentialing Program in Africa
CAIRO, EGYPT – Dr. Valora Washington, chief executive officer of the Council for Professional Recognition, is in Cairo, Egypt to recognize the first set of early childhood educators in that country to earn the CDA® credential. The Council began administering the credential, which designates the holder as a Child Development Associate, 35 years ago to establish a competency standard for those who teach children up to 8 years of age. The Egyptian “graduates” are being honored at the Annual Excellence in Education Awards Ceremony tonight at Badr University in Cairo.
The Council, in partnership with Badr University, launched a pilot program in the summer of 2018 by training 28 teachers who completed the 10-week CDA® course on the Badr University campus. Since then, the program has grown throughout Egypt, expanded to Ghana, and has now trained nearly 100 teachers on the African continent.
“Bringing the CDA® program to Egypt has been critical to ensuring the future success of the country’s children by establishing a competency standard for early childhood educators,” Dr. Washington said. “The number of children aged 5 and under is expected to grow by a million per year over the next ten years, so the Egyptian government knows it must meet the need for more early childhood education, and improving teacher skills through the CDA® credential is an important part of fulfilling that need.”
The Egypt program has also trained 14 CDA Professional Development (PD) Specialists™ who visit the teachers on-site to evaluate their practical skills in the classroom. The evaluations, combined with an exam, are considered before awarding the CDA® designation.
To date, the Council has issued more than 800,000 CDA® credentials to early childhood educators throughout the world.