Smart scaling of early childhood education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

A solid body of evidence demonstrates that the foundations for learning are largely built in the early years of life before a child ever crosses the threshold of a primary school. In fact, attending an early childhood education (ECE) program is one of the strongest predictors for supporting a child’s readiness for school, regardless of household or national income level. When young children are able to access quality, play-based early learning opportunities that support the development of the full breadth of skills (social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and linguistic), they are more likely to enter primary school on time with strong foundational skills, progress through and complete primary school, demonstrate better learning and academic performance in both literacy and mathematics, and be employed in higher-skilled employment later. Not only does ECE set a strong foundation for learning, equitable access to quality pre-primary education help makes education systems more effective and efficient and is also a foundation for sustainable economic growth.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and specifically Target 4.2, convey a clear objective that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so they are ready for primary education. Achieving SDG 4 represents a bold challenge: provide all children with at least one year of quality pre-primary education by 2030. Indicator 4.2.2 of the SDGs assesses the participation rate in organized learning, defined as one year before the official primary entry age.

While globally, the gross pre-primary enrolment rate has increased 28 percentage points in the last 20 years, from 33% in 2000 to 61% in 2020, there is still a lot of progress to be made. Looking specifically at children aged one year younger than the official starting age for primary school – what SDG 4.2.2 measures – the number of out-of-school children in this age group has decreased from 38 million in 2010 to 33 million in 2020. However, most of this improvement took place between 2010 and 2013 and progress has remained stagnant since 2014. Further, access to pre-primary education varies significantly by wealth and by area. Across countries, while almost 90% of pre-primary-aged children from the richest wealth quintile attend school, only 58% from the poorest wealth quintile do so. A similar pattern is seen based on the area in which a child lives, with pre-primary attendance rates for children in rural areas being lower than 14 percentage points than their counterparts living in urban areas.

ECE is one of the smartest investments countries can make. Yet around the world, more than 175 million children are not enrolled in any form of early childhood education. Without access to quality, inclusive ECE, all children, and particularly girls, are at risk of poor learning outcomes and school dropout.

In many countries globally, ECE is chronically underfunded compared to other education levels and the access to, and quality of, ECE is often not adequately prioritized by governments. This situation has been exacerbated by COVID-19 and other humanitarian crises. Competing priorities and budget pressures mean that quality ECE provision for all children falls through the gaps in many contexts. As part of pandemic management, pre-primary education was often the first to close and last to re-open. However, the early years of a child’s life build the basis for lifelong growth, and children who fall behind in these early years often never catch up with their peers. The most disadvantaged children have the most to gain from participation in ECE.

The purpose of this panel is to share and discuss innovative, scalable approaches in the provision of ECE that can positively contribute to meeting SDG 4.2. The first presentation will focus on a recent review that synthesizes evidence on the types and components of pre-primary provision that lead to increased and equitable educational outcomes. The second presentation will discuss an innovative toolkit, the ECE Accelerator, that helps governments and other education stakeholders to support the inclusion and strengthening of Early Childhood Education in Education Sector Planning processes, focusing on how the Toolkit is being used and lessons learned to date, showcasing examples from Tajikistan, South Sudan, and Ghana. The final presentation will provide concrete examples of how working locally can support ECE for children’s school and life success, drawing on a country case study from Nepal, with a focus on operationalizing ECE at the sub-national level through working with local government, schools, teachers and communities. By systematically integrating ECE within national budgets and planning cycles at national and sub-national levels, countries can more effectively implement, and ensure the quality of early childhood education at scale.

Sub Unit

• Early Childhood Development SIG

Chair

• Nicole Rodger, Plan International

Individual Presentations

• Designing pre-primary interventions for implementation and scale - Stefania Vindrola, UNICEF Innocenti - Global Office of Research and Foresight

• The ECE Accelerator Toolkit: Resources to strengthen subnational ECE systems - Jennifer A Vu, UNICEF

• Working locally to support early childhood education for children’s school and life success - Nicole Rodger, Plan International

Discussant

• Elizabeth Laura Lule, ECDAN